


Catalyst

by Weasleymama



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Death, Drug Use, F/M, Gang Rape, Murder, Not Epilogue Compliant, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Rape Aftermath, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 18:27:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3860128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weasleymama/pseuds/Weasleymama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Survival doesn’t mean happiness, doesn’t mean your dreams come true. He saved her once out of spite and obligation, who would save them this time?</p><p>**this was once completed, but the end didn't sit right, so I'm making some adjustments. Thanks for reading!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Silencing of Ginny Weasley

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> This author replies to all comments!

> **MAY 1998**  
>  The explosion sounded, deafening them all, as a hole was blown in the stone wall of the castle. “Weasley!” He shouted for her but her ears were thumping from the blast and she couldn’t hear his call. He ran to her, his eyes darting between her and the weakening ceiling above her. He ducked and stumbled amid the blasting spells and the crumbling stone and debris. He nearly tripped over an unmoving body – not turning to see the fallen, just calling out to her again. 
> 
> She was firing spells through the hole in the wall, fighting back like everyone else, the fire in her hair matching that in her eyes. She was too consumed to see that the joists above her were splintering and she was about to be buried under it. “Ginny!” He shouted again and just as she started to turn he rushed her. His arm swung around her middle as his feet slid across the dust covered floor, taking them both down to the floor and sliding a few yards on the marble.
> 
> Ginny let out a yell, her eyes flashing at him in ager as she shoved him off. “What the bloody hell are you doing?!” She shouted, ears still ringing. Her hand gripped her wand tightly, ready to curse him to hell and back. The crash behind him stopped her. The ceiling had come down, leaving a pile of rocks and rubble where she’d just been standing. She breathed hard, eyes wide as she looked up at him. He’d stood and was breathing hard. His face was black from soot and filth with a bit of red blood smeared from a scratch on his cheek. But even in his disheveled state he looked regal in a ways. 
> 
> He stood tall then and pushed his blonde hair back as she blinked in utter disbelief. “Tell your brother we’re even.” Draco replied haughtily, not waiting for her to get to her feet before he was off again. Ginny got to her feet, blinking after him still in shock. Draco Malfoy had just saved her life...
> 
> **JUNE 1998**  
>  It had been a month since the battle ended, since Harry saved the world again. And a month since Ginny Weasley had last uttered a single word. Ginny was not the only person to see the dead, to feel the pain, but Ginny was the only one to feel the ice cold familiarity down her spine when Voldemort spoke. She was the only one to flash back several years to memories of opening her heart to a beautiful young man and nearly losing her soul in the process. 
> 
> Between the shock and the effect of a war, of fighting to kill and to not be killed, to seeing people fall all around her Ginny was far more affected than even she seemed to know. She had lived most of her life happy and taken care of. She was sure that her experience with the DA fighting Death Eaters in the ministry was enough – that it prepared her. But nothing would prepare her for watching the light go from someone’s eyes. 
> 
> She was proud and sure of herself when she begged to fight, when she took off into the battle but the weight of it all was now tearing her down. There was no denying that Ginny was tough, she could fight and she could make her dent in the world...but even the strong can be emptied of all their spirit if pushed too far. Molly was torn between being scared for her daughter and mourning her. She felt like she’d lost her to the war even if her heart was still beating. 
> 
> “Ginny...please.” Molly pleaded as she sat on the side of Ginny’s bed but the youngest Weasley just lay in her bed, staring out the window in silence. The sun flowed in the room – it was a peaceful sight to anyone but Ginny. She didn’t see anything peaceful any more. “Just say something, love, just one word. Please.” 
> 
> Ginny’s head tilted slightly, her eyes falling on her mother, knowing it was her fault people were hurting but she couldn’t seem to utter even a sigh. She knew that the entire family was mourning, she wasn’t oblivious and she wasn’t gone, she just couldn’t _speak_. Ginny couldn’t bring herself to connect any more. There wasn’t anything left in her to give, even to her mother. She rolled over, turning her back to her mother and staring at the wall now. She heard the soft whimper from Molly and then the sound of the door as it closed when her mother left.
> 
> Ginny rarely left her room, her bed even...but she also rarely slept. Sleep was the worst thing she could do, of course her body needed it, but her mind couldn’t handle the visions she saw. Tonks fighting beside her, and then running after Lupin...Lupin happy teaching her in class...Both of their lifeless bodies on the stone floor of a place she considered her second home. Fred, in a laugh that would never leave his face lying beside them. So many dead bodies, names she didn’t know. Her mother, someone who at worst could shout down the twins but had never even once hit them as a punishment...killing someone – killing someone with an unforgiveable curse, and in the name of saving Ginny herself. Bill’s once beautiful face bloodied and mangled after the attack from Greyback, Sirius falling through the curtain while Death Eater Masks surrounded them, Dumbledore lying at the bottom of the Astronomy tower as Harry clung to him. 
> 
> It wasn’t even just the war she saw any longer, it was every ounce of pain that lead up to it, every dead body she’d ever seen in her life came back to her and tortured her whether she was awake or asleep. Ginny couldn’t close her eyes without seeing pain, everyone she loved in pain. And what had she done? She had fired spells; she had added to the chaos, she had saved no one. She had held the hand of a very young girl as she died, unable to heal her wounds from the battle. She saw the silver masks, the cold and hate filled eyes behind them. She saw the unmasked enemies and their murderous expressions. It was all in flashes and she woke up in a cold sweat barely able to breathe every time. But even then, she never cried out. It was as if her tongue was on her side no matter what the rest of her was doing.
> 
> Harry had come to see her many times, and the last time he came he told her he had to go away for a while, but he would be back. He would take care of her just as soon as everything was resolved. He would speak to her even though she didn’t speak back. He told her how he felt, what was happening...the people who were suffering and all he was trying to do to help them. But _they_ spoke, they told him what was hurting and what they’d lost, they had conversations that pained him, but it helped him. Helping to heal people was helping him heal in return. He told her that he was going to Australia with Ron and Hermione to find her parents. She didn’t say a word, even when he kissed her forehead and told her goodbye.
> 
> Everyone tried to get her to come ‘round. And while she didn’t want to fail them any more than she already had, she couldn’t give them what they wanted. The Weasley’s were losing hope for Ginny, scared she may never come back to them. 


	2. The Fire

> **SEPTEMBER 1998**  
>  For as long as Ginny could remember, on the first of September her entire family went to King’s Cross and any number of siblings would get on the Hogwarts Express. Ginny silent vowed never to get on that train again, never to go back to that castle again. Unlike her family, she’d lost her loyalty to the place – she’d never had as much as the rest of them anyway, not since her first year. While Ginny couldn’t remember the deeds she’d done while possessed by the memory of Voldemort, she remembered talking to him in the diary, she remembered the trust she had for Tom Riddle. She remembered the aftermath of what she’d done: the blood from the chickens on her hands, the friends petrified like stone. Ginny hadn’t ever dwelled on the bad memories at Hogwarts though - there was little point in making everyone around her pity her or feel uncomfortable because she had trouble sleeping or walking in certain hallways.
> 
> The castle suffered a lot of damage, more than everyone realized until they arrived on the first of September to begin the rebuild. The day meant to be symbolic as well as give people time through the summer to recuperate after the battle. Many people volunteered to help rebuild the school, the Weasley’s were of course first to do so. And unfortunately it was Ginny’s silence that kept her from refusing when she wanted to scream out that she’d never go back.
> 
> Arthur and Molly felt it would be good for her to go, to see the positivity happening all around the school, the families joining together to help put back all the pieces. She tried to turn away to their talk, to somehow show them she didn’t want to go. She dreaded being back there again, the place was already filling her nightmares she didn’t need it filling her time awake as well. They couldn’t understand her wordless motions. They all focused on the memories of good times learning there, but Ginny’s memories were only those of dead bodies and screams of pain. As they took the portkey her mother reached over and took her hand and brought her right along even when she tried to back away.
> 
> Ginny stood back as they all got to work, watching as rubble was being cleaned up, even Grawp was there helping as best he could. She slipped away from her family once everyone got busy working on the rebuild. Every step she took a memory hit her of someone shouting or someone dying. She felt like she was in a daze as she moved through the rubble, wishing it would all somehow bury her. She didn’t know what was pulling her inside the place she never wanted to be. It felt magnetic. She bypassed the great hall, and while the faces in the few portraits left on the wall looked to her, she didn’t even glance up at them. 
> 
> Ginny tried to step over all the blood stains on the floor, but some smears were too big to miss completely. She pulled open a door to an unused classroom that had been turned to a storage space for extra desks and shelves. It smelled a bit musty with all the old wood and parchment stacked around and covered in a thick layer of dust. She closed the door behind her before moving through the room, leaving a trail through the dust in her wake. She barely blinked as she pulled out her wand and touched it to the old dry parchment. It sparked though she didn’t say a word. Within moments the room was filled with fire, the old wood catching quickly.
> 
> She didn’t really know if she’d intended to set the fire, all she knew was she wanted the school gone. Maybe if it were truly gone the nightmares that plagued her would go as well. As the flames grew she stood in the middle of it, watching as the fire flickered around her. It got bigger than she realized and soon was surrounding her and blocking the exit. 
> 
> It was the portraits that alerted the others of the fire and they went running through the castle toward the flames. Charlie kicked down the door and the wave of heat hit him hard nearly taking his breath away, Bill was on his heels, extinguishing flames. “Ginny!” Charlie shouted, grabbing her and shaking her. “What did you do?!” She was like a rag-doll in his arms, not fighting against him as he hoisted her on his shoulder and rushed out.
> 
> Molly had to finally admit to herself that there was something wrong with her baby that she couldn’t fix. Ginny had been in a trance-like daze since the fire and it stayed as they admitted her to Saint Mungo’s. Her burned arms were wrapped in bandages to keep the salve against her pale skin until the blisters healed up. But nothing anyone tried seemed to work on her silence. They mixed potions and charms but still she remained like a doll on her cot, limp and quiet. 
> 
> Ginny knew from the moment she was brought into the hospital she was done, they’d given up on her as much as she’d given up on herself. With no resolve, and a long, long talk between Molly and Arthur it was decided that Ginny needed to stay there until she could be healed completely. She didn’t resent them for it; she knew she hadn’t given them any other options. Her family reminded her it was temporary but Ginny knew when she crossed that threshold to the locked Janus Thickey Ward that it was very unlikely she would ever leave.
> 
> **OCTOBER 1998**  
>  Ginny had the room build for 4 to herself for the first three weeks of her stay but the second Friday they brought another patient in to join her. The light from the hall spilled into the room as they opened the door and carried in the stretcher. Ginny didn’t move and with her silence, the healers didn’t realize she was awake. They spoke freely about the patient to the head of the ward. He’d been left unconscious in Admissions with no identification. He had been transferred over the last week to several different wards that didn’t seem to fit the bill. He was unconscious most of the time and in a strange daze the rest of the time. His body was covered in abrasions and cuts, they whispered about sexual abuse and torture. Ginny was sad for the man brought in, he must have been through something awful. But she never got a look at him, the curtains closed too quickly for her to see anything from where she lay.
> 
> Molly came to visit often, continuing to plead with Ginny to come back to her. That she could leave this place if she’d just show some improvement and let them know she was okay. Ginny watched her mother as she came in, sad to disappoint her but not able to give her what she wanted. “Ginny, no one is upset about what happened at the castle, everyone understands that you’re going through something. It was all fixable and…¬” 
> 
> But at that, Ginny rolled over in her bed and curled up, refusing to look at her mother any longer. They didn’t understand. Not if they fixed it. Molly was devastated at the reaction; not knowing what she’d said wrong to make her daughter close off even more. “Gin...” She sighed and leaned in, kissing her daughter’s head. “I love you, Ginny and I’ll be back in a few days.”
> 
> While most of her friends had come to see her a few times, the one to come most often was Luna. When she wasn’t visiting Ginny in person, she was sending her letters and cards, most of them hand painted. She’d send other art of hers and they filled Ginny’s bedside drawer, she wouldn’t let anyone discard a single note. She never wrote back, writing was as impossible for Ginny as talking but she cherished them and cherished Luna. She was so thankful for a friend like her, someone who didn’t expect anything out of her. Sometimes she read to her from the Quibbler that was back in circulation full force now. Sometimes she talked about what she’d seen. Ginny was impressed that Luna was always so unaffected by the things in life that would break someone else.
> 
> Ginny held her hand one day, just looking at her serine face and just squeezed against it. It was uncanny how Luna seemed to understand. “I love you, too.” She assured her friend as if Ginny had actually said the words and not just gave her fingers a squeeze. Ginny fell asleep like that and to her surprise, when she woke – heart pounding and breathing ragged from another frightening dream – Luna was still sitting there, holding her hand. She didn’t tell Ginny it would be okay, she didn’t placate her with silly talk. Instead she just kept holding her hand and kept the serine smile on her face. That was the best day Ginny had since the end of the war, despite it happening while she was locked away with most everyone thinking she was mad.
> 
> It was several weeks before Ginny finally got a look at her roommate. She had just come back into the room and was so quiet that no one knew she had entered. The two healers working on him had left the curtains open. The white blonde hair was the first thing she saw from of young man sitting up in his bed as the healer added some salve to his back. She saw the wounds then, his back covered in cuts and bruises from shoulder to the top of his pants. As she stepped in closer she saw he wasn’t sitting up, he was slumped over and another medi¬wizard was holding him up. She stood still watching them as they turned him and carefully laid him on his back. The scar across his front was big, a huge slash, but it was much older, well healed. It was then she realized that she’d been sharing a room with Draco Malfoy. 
> 
> More surprising than that was that she didn’t care. 
> 
> She watched him in her silence, getting a good look at the large scar across his chest – it must have been terrible when it first happened. She was sure he had seen her looking then, his eyes seemed to settle right on her – but he was not himself. His grey eyes glazed over as he smiled lazily. He was completely drugged. So far gone that he may not have really seen her at all. His outside looked like her inside and his drugged lazy smile, nearly made her smile herself. He was definitely feeling no pain. 
> 
> Ginny looked down at her arms, the scars from her burns were gone now, but his wounds seem like they didn’t want to heal. She wondered how he got them, how deep must they have been. She couldn’t see it at the time, but there had been some healing under his wounds – only then to be attacked again. The medi-wizards questioned his state of being and how he got that way, it wasn’t permanent, but no one had been giving him any potions so it couldn’t be a toxin. As Ginny lay back, she listened as they spoke, it wasn’t clear but she overheard the words illegally, euphoria, damaged and death. The young wizard – who still couldn’t be identified – wouldn’t or couldn’t tell them how he’d received the injuries. 
> 
> As the mediwizards left, Ginny crossed the room, opening the curtain to get a better look at him. He looked so happy…and so far away at the same time. He’d clearly had so much potion he couldn’t feel anything anymore. When his eyes seemed to steady on her, she still wasn’t sure that he could even see her. Her brow furrowed, as if she was asking him what happened to him, but like always, the words never came out. But oddly, his smile just widened. He held a finger to his lips as if to shh her, and then seemed to laugh to himself at the idea of it – bot no sound escaped, just the motion on his face. While Draco found the idea of shhing her very funny, Ginny couldn’t decide if it was funny or insulting. Apparently he had been listening as much as she had when the mediwizards were seeing to the patients. His expression confused her, she expected a sneer or insult, but all she got was a lazy smile. 
> 
> There was something about him that intrigued her, he didn’t seem to mind her removing the curtains until the glaze over his face just started to fade. When the potions effects were wearing off and he was starting to feel the pain he closed his eyes tight. The change in his demeanor made her want to pull back but he motioned with just his fingers for her to come closer. He took in a breath as she moved in. Could she move any fucking slower? 
> 
> Once she was near his bed he muttered the word ‘curtain’. His voice was hoarse and scratchy and she pulled it closed behind her. “Kreacher…” he muttered and the house elf appeared standing next to Draco on his bed. Kreacher opened the potion bottle in his hand and quickly gave Draco a large gulp of the liquid. Ginny stood, eyes wide and shocked. She hadn’t seen the elf since her time at Number 12. Kreacher turned to see her as if she’d gasped out, when she truly hadn’t made a sound. 
> 
> “Master,” He began, clearly speaking to Draco. “Master told Kreacher not to come if anyone was in the room, Kreacher is terribly sorry sir.” He bowed down. The locket Harry had given him was still around his neck. Ginny’s confusion shown on her pale face. 
> 
> Draco patted the elf’s head and smiled. “It’s okay, I invited her.” He said coolly. And she seemed to understand then that once the curtains were closed it made a room where no one could hear them. “Want some?” He asked, eyes on Ginny then and Kreacher turned to her, holding out the bottle. “It’s my own brew of elixir to induce euphoria, I made some _adjustments_.” He let out a small laugh as Ginny bit her bottom lip, contemplating it. 
> 
> “It will make you feel better.” He told her and hoping it would, she nodded. Kreacher gave her just a few drops, it was a strong potion and Draco had built up a tolerance to it by this point. But even then, she felt it hit her instantly…warm from the inside and her head light. Everything that had been infecting her mind and making her constantly remember the terrible things she’d seen and done were fading. Not gone but fading away. She smiled, eyes closing for a moment as she relished in the taste, the effects. 
> 
> The feeling was taking her over and making her feel so happy, so good that she didn’t care about anything. “Thank you.” She whispered the first words she’d spoken in months and her eyes went wide when she heard her own voice. Draco just smiled wide. 
> 
> “Don’t worry, Ginny, I won’t tell anyone you can talk.” He said softly as he relaxed back against his pillow. He turned to Kreacher then. “Thank you, friend.” Ginny’s was surprised at how he treated the elf, but her face only showed contentment. She felt nothing. 
> 
> The light outside the window looked so beautiful now and Ginny smiled brighter than she had in a long, long time. When she looked back over to Draco, he was asleep with a wide smile. It looked like a brilliant idea and she moved over to her own bed, and laid back. It was the first time she’d slept without seeing the awful visions in her head. The first time she’d slept without waking in a cold sweat. The first time in ages she’d truly _slept_.


	3. The Attack

> **NOVEMBER 1998**  
>  Ginny’s lips curled into a lazy smile as she sat next to Draco on his bed with the curtains hiding them away. His eyes were glassy as he looked over at her and reached to touch her hair. His long thin fingers moved through her bright red hair – the only thing bright about her these days. She tilted towards his hand, the feeling tingling over her scalp and making her smile a little wider. She looked over to him, her eyes taking a moment to focus. 
> 
> Draco had been sharing his potion with her since the first night – though not as often as he took it, and when he got a gulp, she got drops on her tongue or a just a sip. Draco couldn’t say why it mattered to him so much, why he should ever care about her of all people - but he wanted her to smile. He liked the way she looked at him like he was taking away her pain – something he’d not been able to do for his mother. The only time she spoke was with him, simple words like thanks or goodnight. But it wasn’t the words so much as the fact that she said them. He liked that the rare sound of Ginny’s voice was the last thing he heard before he fell asleep. He’d even lightened his doses so he didn’t crash quite so fast and could hear her words. 
> 
> She leaned into him, their lips meeting in a soft kiss that didn’t grow deep but instead turned to several small kisses. She rested beside him, nose to nose on the pillow as his hand continued to slide through her hair. He’d mocked her family for their hair in the past but now he found it to be the most beautiful color he’d ever seen. Ginny was sure the first time she woke up beside him it was the potion, it made her forget who he was, but as time passed she knew it was more than that. The potion just took away her pain and let her see more in him. “You’re different now.” She told him, her smile reaching her glossy brown eyes. 
> 
> Draco nodded a bit, knowing she was right, but he was still trying to figure out why. Was it what he had gone through, was it the potions, or loss of his mother. Or was it that everything he used to be was the façade and was who he truly was? He didn’t know the answer, or even what he wanted the answer to be. “You are too.” She nodded some and while it was hard to frown with the potion flowing through her the smile on her lips fell slightly. She knew she was different now – she was worse, she was broken and lost and had no hope for ever being her old self again. 
> 
> **DECEMBER 1998**  
>  “Why won’t you talk to them?” He asked her, and just as he expected, she just looked at him with those big eyes. They weren’t that big in school were they? Maybe it was because she was thinner, or perhaps he just never paid her any attention in school but they were so warm he had no trouble finding some kind of trust in them now. Ginny just looked at him when he asked, she didn’t reply. One day maybe, but not yet. “They’d let you go home if you did.” 
> 
> He offered her the potion just to take the sadness from her eyes as she shook her head. She accepted it “They won’t ever send me home.” She told him softly, pausing only to close her eyes for a moment as the potion began to flow through her. “I tried to burn down Hogwarts.” She told him, “I…I hate that place.” Draco shifted some to face her as she spoke. “But, I messed up. I got caught.” She sighed, the most disappointment she could show with the potion working on her. 
> 
> “I wish you’d done it.” He told her with a proud smile on his face. “I hate it too” He took a sip of the potion himself, not wanting to be knocked out yet, just to help them both feel better. He sat holding her close for a long time before he spoke as well. “They’re going to send me home eventually.” And her eyes shot up, opening wide as she stared at him. “They’re going to figure out that I’m taking potions eventually and I won’t be able to stay.” She looked away from him then and it pained him as much as anything could while under the effects of the potion. 
> 
> Draco frowned, wanting more potion to take away the feeling of disappointing her. But he forced himself to wait, to keep speaking. “I…I’ll make sure Kreacher keeps coming for you. I’ll make sure you have potions, you don’t have to hurt.” But she looked away from him and the last thing he wanted was to stop being the only person she’d speak to. He reached over, touching her hair gently. “I don’t want to go.”
> 
> Her hair swished past his hand as she turned to face him, brow furrowed in curiosity. He could see in her eyes that the potion hitting her, but she hadn’t had enough not to understand or remember his words. “I don’t have anywhere to go.” He confessed. “The manor is…ashes and my parents are dead. There is nothing out there for me...” It was the most he’d spoken about his life. 
> 
> Ginny swallowed hard, taking a moment to get the words out. “I’m sorry about your parents.” It tasted weird in her mouth to say it, she wasn’t really sorry. About his mum maybe, she’d lied and kept Harry alive, but his father was a horrible person and she wasn’t sad he was gone. Draco just shrugged. 
> 
> “It’s fine.” But it wasn’t, he missed them. He knew his father was a bastard, but he didn’t want him dead. They were all just trying to survive. Draco knew better than most that people made decisions they may regret when it came to survival. He wondered if she knew that too. This was the most lucid he’d been in a while and he wasn’t sure if he liked it. The mention of his parents were giving him flashes of things he had been working hard to forget. He downed the rest of his potion then with a muttered ‘cheers’ in Ginny’s direction.
> 
> After a long silence between then, Ginny spoke softly. “I don’t want you to go.” She sat near him on his bed and he opened his eyes and looked up at her. It was dark in the room, but the windows brought in the moonlight – which made them both look even paler than they already were. She slowly turned her head to look at him. She smiled lazy like he did and shifted to lay beside him as her head grew lighter. If anyone told her a year ago she’d be laying in a hospital bed with Draco Malfoy she’d have thought they’d been confunded, but there she was. She smiled as she spoke “Don’t leave.” He shifted in what could seem like just getting comfortable beside her, his arm under her neck and his head casually leaning against hers, the contrast of his white blonde and her deep red was strong.
> 
> Ginny woke with a start as the elf popped in on the bed and stood right on her. “Master…master they’re coming.” He said waking Draco who seemed to have lost his joy from the potion. The blood was leaving his face and he was breathing hard. Ginny barely got out the word ‘who’ before Draco began speaking quickly. “Kreacher, the potion.” He handed Draco another dose of the euphoric potion, before he swallowed it he looked to Ginny. “Kreacher, hide her, disillusionment, anything, just hide her quickly.” He took a deep breath and placed a shaking hand on the elf. “Please keep her safe Kreacher.” And then he was uncorking the bottle and swallowing it all. 
> 
> “Wait…what? Drac-” And before she could say another word, she was tapped on the head by the elf. She was silenced, no matter how much she moved her mouth nothing came out. Looking down she also saw that she and the elf were invisible and he was pulling her across the room. He was trying to get her out the door, but it swung open before he could. So he pulled her down to the floor near an empty bed, so no one could bump them. 
> 
> Kreacher held her tighter than she thought his tiny body could manage, not letting her move away from their hidden spot. He was asked to keep her safe and he would. Ginny had begun to shake in fear as the cloaked wizards entered the room. Draco was smiling like an idiot, the potion had worked how it was supposed to and he was somewhere else completely. She understood now, he knew they would hurt him and so long as he was under the effects of the potion he wouldn’t feel it so much. 
> 
> She was silenced, and this time not by her own mind but by a very persistent elderly house elf who had once hated her. She watched helplessly as the two wizards entered. “You thought you could just burn the fucking house down and kill us in our sleep?” One of them growled as he aimed a wand at Draco. “Think we’d just let you get away? The only escape for a Death Eater is death.” He growled, close to Draco now. Ginny was terrified, struggling as fear built up inside her. 
> 
> The potion made Draco react in the worst way possible: he laughed. And instead of cursing him straight away, the man head-butted Draco, breaking his nose. Blood spurted from his face and Ginny was trying hard to get away, to scream, to let someone know they needed help. The other wizard was silent as he aimed his wand at Draco and muttered ‘crucio’ causing Draco to writhe and twist. The potion was no match for the curse he’d felt many times before and the young blonde yelled out. 
> 
> “Idiot!” The first yelled as they could hear people coming down the hall. “Told you to silence him first!” The first, still close to Draco used his wand to burn into Draco’s skin He was quick and the word was sloppy but clear. ‘Traitor’ was burned into his arm on top of the dark mark scar that was already there. Since the Dark Mark could never be removed, the new scars seemed to make it even more apparent. “See how much they want to help you now, you spineless conspirator.” 
> 
> Draco’s breathing was ragged and even the potion wasn’t making the pain go away completely. As Ginny cried invisible tears, terrified and angry, the mediwizards came rushing in, wands drawn only to duck as the flash of red light came at them. The blast hit the door behind them, making a massive hole for them to escape from – the terrified healers not prepared for a battle with Death Eaters. 
> 
> Once the Death Eaters were gone the medi-wizards rushed to Draco’s side but halted at the sight of his arm. He no longer wanted to touch the young man. He hadn’t noticed the dark mark before, but now it was clear as ever beneath the burns. Once Voldemort was gone, the dark mark lost its blackness, and just became a scar like any other…and unless you were looking for it or knew it was there, it was easy to miss. 
> 
> A now visible Ginny was furious as it was, but the healer’s action only served to upset her further. She pulled herself out from under the bed and rushed across the room – shoving the wizard towards Draco. “Help him!” She shouted. And while their concern had been the attacked man, both healers froze with shocked expressions at the small ginger standing angrily before them using a loud voice they’d never heard before. 


	4. The Safe Place

> **DECEMBER 1999**  
>  The healers were so gobsmacked at Ginny speaking they momentarily forgot about Draco and his new injuries. But she sent them a look of fire that snapped them out of their shock. They fixed his nose, cleaned up the blood and put salve on his arm. “The scar may remain, dark magic has its way of um…” The medi-wizard hesitated at the sight of the dark mark. “Marking someone for life.” He swallowed hard and wrapped the arm. 
> 
> Draco was practically laughing. “Okay, enough! What is it? What has he taken!?” The mediwizard turned to Ginny, she’d spoken once, she’d do it again. “I know you know, Miss Weasley, we need to know what it is. What if it’s counter acting our efforts?” He tried to speak to the side of her that urged them to help. But it wouldn’t work. She knew that potion wasn’t doing anything except taking Draco’s pain away. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared at them as if she’d never said a word. “For Merlin’s sake!” The healer huffed, turning on his heel and rushing out to meet aurors who had arrived regarding the attack.
> 
> Soon as they were gone, Ginny at Draco’s side. She looked at him with tears still in her eyes. “I could have helped you.” She scolded him, “Why?!” Draco laughed a little, he was feeling no pain now, the potion having hold of him. He reached over and touched her hair tentatively, almost as if in his state he didn’t know if it was real.
> 
> “He’ll keep you safe.” He replied, as if that was an answer. “When they kill me, he’ll stay with you.” He told her, smiling wide. To him this was to comfort her, to her it was an awful nightmare. She shook her head, her words retreating again. He was as drugged as he could be while still conscious and he used all his energy to focus on her. “He will protect you.” He said as if her shaking her head was her disagreeing with him. He reached for her, fingers wrapping around her wrist and pulling her to sit beside him on the bed. He put an arm around her. “And he’ll make you potions too, I taught him how.” 
> 
> “Stop.” She told him, pulling away from his arm. She couldn’t just dismiss this just because he wasn’t thinking clearly. His face fell, but only just barely. She huffed, not knowing how to make him come back from this. And she only had one option, despite how weird it felt to do it. “Kreacher?” She whispered and POP there he was, bowing at her. “Why did they come for him?” She asked, motioning to Draco, speaking of the attack, of him hiding her, of everything that happened. Kreacher twitched some, as if he wasn’t supposed to tell. “I can’t be safe if I don’t know.” It was low of her to use his orders against him, but she was determined.
> 
> The elf shifted from one foot to the other for a few long moments, as if he was weighing the pros and cons of telling her anything at all. Draco grinned wide and his arm had found Ginny again, within seconds of her willingly leaning in close so he could hold onto her, he was asleep. “Master was a follower of The Dark Lord, miss. He got the mark when he was sixteen.” She nodded, she’d known that much. “The Malfoy’s fled, they defected from their loyalties.” Before Ginny could protest that Voldemort had been defeated Kreacher continued, his voice old and creaky but he didn’t waver, he knew what was true. 
> 
> “Death Eaters don’t let you leave.” Kreacher continued. “When the Malfoy’s went to the manor before leaving the country, the others were waiting.” As he slept Draco pulled Ginny tighter to him and she hardly noticed as she could practically see the events playing in her mind while Kreacher spoke. “The Malfoys were imprisoned and punished for betraying the Dark Lord. Miss, his defeat did not stop them from practicing dark magic.” He continued. “Mr. Malfoy killed himself on the third day while Draco and Mrs. Malfoy slept. Master Draco…saw bad things happen to his parent’s, things Kreacher doesn’t want to say.” 
> 
> Ginny wanted to know, but she let Kreacher know she didn’t need the details of their pain. “Kreacher found Master as soon as Harry Potter set him free. Kreacher brought Master Draco here, miss. Kreacher didn’t get back in time to get Mrs. Malfoy.” Ginny’s chest clenched thinking about it, Narcissa had been killed in her own home. “No one knew Kreacher took Master Draco, he was safe, Master Draco was hurt, very hurt, but he still taught Kreacher how to help him, and help you miss.” Ginny sighed, she didn’t want to be helped if it meant watching someone preform the Cruciatus curse on Draco while she hid away and while she wanted to protest further on the matter, she could only imagine the torture shed have gone through if they knew she was there – a blood traitor, as good as a muggle, and wandless to boot. She sighed and leaned back against the bed beside Draco. 
> 
> “You have to get him out of here, they’ll come back.” She told Kreacher, though deep down not wanting Draco to go. “Can you find somewhere safe?” She asked the elf, distress in her eyes – an expression she never thought she’d be giving to Kreacher the first time she saw him. Ginny didn’t realize it at the time but she was mentally preparing to go with him. “Somewhere no one will find him.” Kreacher nodded and pushed something into her hand before the pop when he disappeared, on his search for a safe haven for his Master – and Ginny Weasley. Ginny opened her hand once he was gone and there was another potion bottle and she knew why. In case he didn’t return quickly, Ginny would be in charge of giving Draco the potion that kept his pain at bay. 
> 
> She shoved it into the pocket of her dressing gown as her eyes moved over Draco – looking over his bandaged arm. He was a Death Eater. But he was more than that to her. He had made a point to protect her instead of himself. Kreacher could have taken him away, could have really taken them both away. But instead his only instruction was to protect Ginny – and his pain was something that would haunt her for a long time. She curled her small frame against Draco’s. Both so skinny they looked sick, but his body much longer than hers in the bed. 
> 
> He held onto her in his sleep – a strong hold like no one else had ever had before…he needed her. She found that she liked it. She wrapped an arm around his middle over the sheet and rested her head on the pillow next to his, closing her eyes. “Prat.” She muttered with a half-smile on her lips. She didn’t think of going back to her own bed. Not this time, all she wanted was to be close to him and make sure he was safe. She didn’t realize her family was on their way and as soon as they’d heard of the attack – of her speaking – they were all bursting into the room. Ron pushed through first – his mother right on his heels. 
> 
> “What the bloody fu-” Ron began loudly, but was stopped by a smack in the back of his head from his mother, knowing the words he was going to spout out. However, as soon as she was close enough to hit him she saw what had shocked her youngest son so much. Her eyes went wide. 
> 
> At Ronald’s outburst, Ginny’s head popped up, her own eyes wide with shock and her speech was gone once more. Her eyes moved back to Draco beside her and his arm clinging to her. Ronald’s disgust and his wand clutched in his hand was too much for Ginny to stand and she gave him a glare that matched her mother’s. She swallowed hard and sat up to see the rest of the family piling into the room. Her heat slipping away from him had a sleeping Malfoy pulling at her once more. She rolled her eyes and nudged him as if he were conscious and knew what he was doing. 
> 
> While Ginny knew that Ron wanted to curse the sleeping blonde to oblivion, she kept herself positioned in front of Draco so her brother couldn’t have even sent a childish hex his way. She never imagined she’d be protecting Draco Malfoy from the angry glares of her brother. 
> 
> Everything changed in Ginny when she caught her mother’s concerned look. She opened her arms as her eyes welled without control. She’d missed her mother. The events of the night took her back to the cries of pain during the battle and all she wanted was her mother. “Mummy…” She whimpered out and Molly was quickly wrapping her arms around her tiny daughter. Ginny’s fingers curled around her mother’s robes as Molly stroked her back. “It’s okay, love, it’s all over now.” Her mother tried to soothe her and stroked her hair, but Ginny shook her head. 
> 
> “No.” She whispered, pulling back. “No, it’s not. It’s never over.” And she broke then, tears streamed down her face. They hadn’t heard her speak in so long but they all held back their surprise only revealing concern for her. “They just came in, and I couldn’t stop it, and they, they” she motioned to Draco in the bed but couldn’t bring herself to say the words just let out a sob. “They’re going to kill him. I couldn’t…I tried…” Ginny couldn’t even form the words now as she sobbed against her mother. Ron was even more confused the more his sister spoke. He hated Malfoy, but more than that he hated seeing his sister so distraught. 
> 
> “Mum, we need to-ahh” Ron exclaimed, his words stopped by a loud POP and Kreacher appeared at the foot of Draco’s cot. Ron stumbled back into Percy who pushed him back upright. “Bloody hell is this a hospital or not?!” He shouted out eyes darting all around. But surprisingly, Ginny had let go of her mother and wiped her face, giving all her attention to Kreacher. 
> 
> “Kreacher found a place, Miss.” Ron remembered the change in Kreacher once Harry gave him the locket that he still wore on his neck but hearing him talking to Ginny as if she was his mistress and things made no sense at all. And as much as Ginny wanted to go with him, she knew her family would protest and if she couldn’t go – she couldn’t know. With a quivering lip, looking back at Draco, sleeping and knowing she wouldn’t get to say goodbye, she nodded. 
> 
> “Go, don’t tell me where, please, don’t tell _anyone_ where, just go.” Her whole body ached along with her heart as she pulled Draco’s arm off her. She squeezed his hand briefly as tears spilled from her eyes once more. “Thank you, Kreacher.” She managed to whisper before he nodded to her, and took ahold of Draco’s hand and with another pop, both the elf and the unconscious blonde wizard were gone. 
> 
> All of the Weasley’s stared wide-eyed at Ginny but she had no answers for them, only went back to her mother’s arms as she sobbed.
> 
> * * *
> 
>  
> 
> Harry was waiting at the Burrow when the Weasley’s returned but Ginny didn’t even seem to notice him. “I mean it, Mum, we need to set every protection spell we can, they’ll find out I was there. They’ll come after all of us.” 
> 
> Harry’s brow furrowed at her frantic words – she was talking now? But past his shock he could hear her desperation. “Gin, I’ll take care of it.” He told her stepping outside for a moment. Ron followed him out, telling him everything he’d seen as Harry put protections on the property that hadn’t been there in more than a year. “What?!” Harry spun around so quickly he could have disapparated at Ron’s words. 
> 
> “She was in a bed with Malfoy!” Ron was still appalled by it all. He knew it was due to Malfoy’s mum that Harry got back to them that night, but it didn’t make Draco any less a git. “And Kreacher came and took him away.” Harry blinked hard, he’d released the elf, but he never expected he’d gone to Malfoy, he figured the elf went back to Hogwarts like Dobby had done. Harry was quiet for a long moment, silently setting spells around the perimeter. It was a lot to take in, especially the girl he once loved having been practically snogging Draco Malfoy. It took him back to feeling 16 again and it wasn’t a feeling he much enjoyed. 
> 
> Inside, Ginny was at the kitchen table with the rest of the family, her mother making her a cup of tea. George splashed in a bit of fire whiskey into the cup. “George!” His mother hissed, ready to dump it. 
> 
> “Mum, just give it to her.” George told her in a monotone voice, his joy still not there without his twin. It was time to stop thinking of Ginny as too young, and George knew that even if his mother didn’t want to accept it. He took the cup from his mother’s still shaky hands and put it in front of his little sister. “Drink it slow, Gin.” Little did any of them know she’d spent months taking potions with Malfoy and a little fire whiskey was nothing in comparison to the contents of the bottle in her pocket.
> 
> Harry and Ron joined everyone at the table as they all waited for Ginny to explain. She didn’t tell them how long she’d been speaking to Draco, only that he helped her and had been nothing but kind to her sicne his arrival. Before she began to tell them all about the attack she downed the tea in just two gulps and ignored her mother’s disapproving looks. 
> 
> “Kreacher came, said they were coming and… and he told Kreacher to – to – to hide me and keep me safe.” She swallowed hard, not wanting to look at any of them, not wanting them to see how much it hurt her that she couldn’t help him. “And I couldn’t talk, and I was invisible, and couldn’t move…and…and they just broke in and attacked him.” Her voice broke, her face wet with more tears as her nose burned trying to hold them back. “All I could do was watch. One of them broke his nose…and burned the word traitor on his arm. And the other preformed the Cruciatus curse on him. And he screamed…” She let out a sob then. “I couldn’t stop it…I wanted to, I wanted to help, but…he and Kreacher…and I couldn’t.” 
> 
> Ginny took a moment to calm down, to compose herself. “They said they’d be back to kill him, that the…” She swallowed hard as the words replayed in her mind. “The only way out for a death eater is death.” They all exchanged looks at this. Harry was focused and alert, waiting for any kind of clue on where he could find the Death Eaters – wanting to take out the lot. 
> 
> “I couldn’t move again until they were gone, bloody elf magic.” She sounded bitter as she told them about Kreacher keeping her away. “I wanted to help –I couldn’t, but…” She shook her head but, Harry understood, he’d been out in the same situation by Dumbledore before his death. He knew the frustration she felt, even if it was towards Malfoy. He reached out, touching her hand, silently urging her to continue. “Draco only said a little before he passed out.” She didn’t tell anyone about the potions, she didn’t want it taken from her. “He said…” Her bottom lip shook as she tried to get it out. “He said when they killed him, Kreacher would still keep me safe.” 
> 
> She cried out and let go of the sobs then, leaning into her mother once more. It was obvious she cared for Draco, and despite how much it confused them all, in that moment all that mattered was that she was okay now.
> 
> “Gin,” Mr. Weasley began. “What else happened at the hospital?” 
> 
> Ginny sniffled a few times and nodded, getting herself together to speak again. Her voice was hoarse from all the talking she’d done after so little before. “Um…once Draco was out, I got Kreacher to tell me what was going on.” She wiped her red face, it was all so horrible. “So… after they all found one another, after the…battle.” Ginny swallowed, not thinking when she began to speak again that she’d be telling this story to anyone. She didn’t like even knowing it herself, it was just too awful. But she couldn’t keep it in, she was feeling broken all over again and she just wanted her mother. 
> 
> “The Malfoys left, they ran away from it all, and um… even though it over and You-Know” …she swallowed, not able to even say that much just then. “Well, the Death Eaters are still around and angry, they still believe, just don’t have someone to follow. They captured the Malfoys as they tried to escape.” Ginny swallowed, trying to be hard and strong. She told them all Kreacher had told her about the attack on the Malfoys, Lucius’s suicide and the murder of Narcissa, to which Harry took in a deep and shaky breath. And she told them about Draco telling her the place had burned. 
> 
> “I told Kreacher to go find a safe place no one could find Draco and take him away…so he did. I don’t know where…it’s not safe for them if I know.” She muttered, trying to justify it to herself more than to her family. “I just wanted him to be safe…he…he’s my friend.” She muttered, not even caring what they thought, because if she was honest he was more to her than a friend. 
> 
> “It’s okay, Ginny, you did the right thing.” Molly told her, hugging her daughter to her side. “C’mon let’s get you to bed.” And she was grabbing a bottle of dreamless sleep potion as she led Ginny back to the room that hadn’t changed since she’d last been in it. As if she never was sent away to begin with. Ron turned to Harry with a determined look on his face. “Let’s go.” He said standing, wand in hand. Harry didn’t need to ask, they knew one another too well to even be curious as to what Ron had on his mind. Molly didn’t even have to try to convince Ginny to take the potion, she swallowed it quickly and drifted to sleep with one last thought of Draco before she was out.
> 
> Ron and Harry rode through the night to Malfoy Manor. The spells protecting the house in the past were gone now, likely gone with the death of Mr. & Mrs. Malfoy. They were able to push the gate open with a loud creak. There were white peacock feathers and the stain of dried blood on the ground. Harry thought back, remembering the albino peacocks, likely killed and eaten by the invaders. Ron stared at the large house with more hate in his eyes than Harry had seen in a long, long time. He placed a hand on his best mates shoulder to try to remind him he wasn’t there alone. The Manor was only partially burned near the second floor but someone had clearly put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the house. “We need to make sure there’s no one left inside.” Harry began, knowing Ron would be fine to just shoot fire at the house and never look back. Ron glared harder but gave him a nod.
> 
> The only bodies left were dead ones, the decomposed body of Lucius Malfoy were still hanging from his hand-made noose in the cellar where the boys themselves had been held captive. The body of Narcissa showed a much worse fate. She’d been left where she died – tied to a bed upstairs. How she died, Harry didn’t know, but he was sure of some of the terrible acts she’d experienced before death took her. Ron had left quickly at the sight, clear as to what she’d been suffering before she was left in her own blood to die alone. 
> 
> Harry found him outside, heaving and gagging on the dying lawn. Harry had a stronger stomach and just patted his friend’s back. “Ron, we have to…” Ron just nodded a bit between vomiting. Harry waved his wand a few times, magically digging the graves in the back garden and then bringing the bodies to the holes. He gave more respect to Narcissa, she’d saved his life and lost her own for it. He gave them a large boulder for a head stone, carving their sur name on it. Harry placed one of the rose bushes over Narcissa’s gave. Something felt right about making sure they had a proper burial – or at least that she did. 
> 
> Ron’s pale face showed the unease of his stomach, but he stood tall. “You think Malfoy saw…” Ron muttered nodding towards the graves, wondering about Draco. Harry just nodded, sure that the son had seen just what they’d done to his mother. 
> 
> “Do it.” Harry told Ron, giving Ron the honors of casting the spell. The ginger fired his wand at the house and the entire place ignited in flames. They stayed on the grounds, watching it burn down to nothing but embers on the ground. The job was done. 


	5. The Plot & The Consequence

> **FEBRUARY 1999**  
>  It had been two months since Ginny had seen Draco Malfoy. She cried more tears over missing Draco than she could even make sense of. She’d grown to trust him and feel a kind of closeness to him. She’d wanted to go with him that night when she first gave Kreacher his order – but all the care she had for him didn’t measure up to the what she felt for her family. So instead she just told them to take her home – taking Draco’s potion with her as they disapperated. 
> 
> She didn’t withdraw completely, but she still couldn’t talk to anyone in the Burrow with the same openness she’d shared with Draco. She’d felt a connection to him that she’d never had before. Molly frowned as she watched her daughter’s face twist with worry. “Ginny, he’s safe. Kreacher would have come to you if he wasn’t, right?” The words weren’t exactly happy, but they gave Ginny some solace in the truth of it all. “We can try to find him…” 
> 
> At that Ginny sat up quickly. “No!” She shook her head, a calmer tone then. “No, don’t look for him, if you can find him so can they.” Just the thought of it made her face fall again.
> 
> However, Harry didn’t have the same mentality as Ginny and he began a search for Draco – but only in his time away from the Auror office. He didn’t want this one on the books. Draco was a Death Eater, marked for life, but he didn’t have the same mentality as the others, he’d proven that much and his defection had made him a marked man. Harry knew he could help protect Draco – as well as perhaps find those hunting him down. He just needed a little time to sort it all out. 
> 
> **APRIL 1999**  
>  Harry had spent more than a month searching, using spells, magical maps, anything he could think of. But, it wasn’t until he sighed in exasperation and said “Kreacher, where are you?” He’d not meant to call the elf, only been frustrated – but it worked none the less. With a POP, Kreacher appeared in Harry’s study with the locket still worn proudly on his chest. 
> 
> “I’s here.” Kreacher said looking curiously to Harry who only sat completely gobsmacked. 
> 
> Harry smacked himself in the forehead at his own stupidity for not thinking of it sooner. “Kreacher, I need your help. I need to find Draco.”
> 
> “Aye, no, Harry Potter. Kreacher cannot tell you. Mistress told Kreacher not to tell.” Harry furrowed his brow. Mistress? 
> 
> “But Kreacher, you’re— Ginny” Harry looked into the elderly elf’s big eyes. “Kreacher, is Ginny your Mistress now? How is that even possible? I freed you.”
> 
> “Kreacher has a new master, Kreacher takes care of Mister Malfoy now.” His voice was still creaky showing his age, but he seemed younger in spirit, he had a purpose once again and one he enjoyed. Harry had to take a moment, just looking at the elf and blinking a few times. 
> 
> “How is Ginny you’re mistress?” Harry asked, not understanding how this had even happened. “Mister Malfoy told Kreacher she was his Mistress. Kreacher came tonight because he’s still thankful to Harry Potter for helping his Master Regulus.” Harry nodded with a disappointed understanding. Kreacher would not break the order no matter what Harry had done for him in the past. 
> 
> Harry needed Ginny.
> 
> * * *
> 
>    
> 
> 
>  “No!” Ginny shouted, shaking her furiously. How could he even ask her. Harry had explained his search to her now, that he’d spoken to Kreacher. He needed to find Draco. Her mind reeled…Kreacher called her mistress. Draco was safe but Kreacher wouldn’t tell Harry where they were. She knew Kreacher would tell her if she wanted to know. She could get to Draco now. 
> 
> But the look in Harry’s eyes didn’t sit well with her. Not trusting Harry didn’t make sense, he’d never put her in harm’s way. But he was pressing it in a way she didn’t like. He cared too much. She took a deep breath as her hand moved over the potion bottle in her pocket. How easy it would be to take just a little and not deal with this. “Harry….no.” She said in a calmer tone. “He’s safe; he doesn’t need your help.”
> 
> “Ginny, listen, I’m an Auror now, you know I can help him. I’m not looking to hurt him or arrest him. I know he’s not really a Death Eater. The mark is just a mistake for him. Okay? I won’t hurt him. He was taken out of a hospital to…who knows where…by an elf in the middle of the night. I can help keep him safe, I can protect him.” Harry swallowed. “Ginny, you want him safe, I know you do. I’m doing this for you. I’m doing this because he saved you, and deserves to be thanked for that.” 
> 
> Somewhere inside himself, Harry made himself believe those manipulative words. He’d made a plan as soon as he knew of the attack and he wasn’t letting go of it. As soon as he put Draco’s location out there, the Death Eaters would come after him and he would capture them all. Nothing would happen to Draco, he was sure of that, he just needed to know where he was. Not only would he be able to put more Death Eaters in Azkaban, but he could avenge Narcissa’s death, surely Draco would want that as well.
> 
> And it seemed to be working as Ginny’s resolve wavered. “Swear to me, Harry. Swear to me this is just to keep him safe.” Ginny spoke with a tone that was nearly threatening him, needing his word before she’d ever risk her friend’s life.
> 
> “I swear, Ginny.” 
> 
> She took in a deep breath, closing her eyes tight before she whispered out the name. “Kreacher…” POP. He stood before her with a kind expression. Ginny swallowed hard, forcing the words out. “Kreacher, will you pl-please tell me where Draco is?” It was odd for Harry to hear Draco’s name fall from Ginny’s lips with such an inflection, it was all too clear just how much she cared for the Slytherin. He tried to shake it off and listen to the elf. Catching the Death Eaters had nearly become an obsession for him. 
> 
> “Kreacher took Master to the safest place there is.” The elf spoke. 
> 
> “Hogwarts?” Harry asked, causing both Ginny and Kreacher to look at him as if he were insane. But it had been a gut reaction, for him it was the safest place.
> 
> “Number 12, Missus.” And Ginny nearly laughed. Not only was the ‘safest place’ Harry’s own house, but it was somewhere Ginny once stayed. How could she not have realized that would be where Kreacher would go, that was the elf’s safest place. “Kreacher keeps Master hidden and taken care of.” 
> 
> Her eyes welled with tears and she smiled. “Thank you Kreacher, thank you.” She nodded a few times and sent him back to Draco, not wanting him to be alone in his pain.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Harry was the rightful owner of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, but he hadn’t stepped foot back in the home since the day of the Gringotts break-in. He was surprised how clean it was, Kreacher had obviously been taking care of it and making his new master as comfortable as he’d once tried to make Harry. 
> 
> Harry had made a decision, he’d simply talk to Draco, show him that revealing the location would help him capture those out to do harm. He would remind him that they’d go after Ginny next, how a single day of danger would help keep them safe forever. That he would make it his mission to avenge Narcissa - Harry knew if he could just speak to Draco, man-to-man for the first time in their lives that Draco would understand. 
> 
> What Harry didn’t plan on however was Ginny being there when he arrived. He found them in Regulus’s old room. Draco was lying on the bed with a table of variously filled potion bottles next to him. And most shocking to Harry, he had Ginny Weasley lying in the bed beside him. His ex-girlfriend lying in bed with his ex-enemy. What had his life become? 
> 
> Draco laid on his back with the small ginger curled up at his side – both sleeping with a contented smile on their faces. It was strange to see Ginny smile at all, but to do it in the embrace of Malfoy was baffling. Harry had to blink hard and move in closer to make sure it was real. But as soon as he got a better look at them, he wished he’d stayed out of the room. Ginny’s arm was over Draco’s stomach, their fingers laced together at his middle and his other arm around her back as he kept her close to him. 
> 
> The fire in Harry’s stomach wasn’t a new feeling, he’d felt it years ago - a jealousy that was completely unjustified. He had no right to be jealous…she wasn’t his girlfriend anymore – hadn’t been since 6th year. But she looked so comfortable and happy laying there and he hadn’t seen Ginny truly happy in a long, long time. He couldn’t help but wonder why he had never been able to make her happy.
> 
> Harry slipped out again, and made his way down to the kitchen. Kreacher was standing on a stool looking into a large cauldron on the stove. “Hello, Kreacher.” The elf turned greeting Harry. “Um, the house looks great, thank you for keeping up with it so well.” He wasn’t sure why he wanted the elf to know that his work was noticed, he likely didn’t need the reminder. “How did you get rid of the painting of Mrs. Black?” 
> 
> Kreacher brought Harry a cup of tea without being asked. “Kreacher was the one who kept it sticking.” He explained and it actually made Harry laugh. Mrs. Black hadn’t put the sticking charm on the portrait like they’d once thought, Kreacher had done it and no one had ever asked him about removing her. “She is in her room, she is much better there.” 
> 
> Harry nodded, smiling against his tea cup. “I need to talk to him, Kreacher.” Harry said in a much more serious tone. “I can make the Death Eaters go away, but I need to talk to him – without Ginny.” Harry hadn’t allowed himself to be unsure of his plan, not until he knew Ginny was there. Then all he could think of was something going wrong and her being hurt. “Can you help me with that?” He asked the elf.
> 
> Harry blinked a few times when Kreacher explained to him that Ginny would stay till morning. He didn’t understand how she would be sleeping with Draco Malfoy…even if it was just sleeping. What had happened between the two of them?
> 
> He bid his time in Sirius’ old room – which was surprisingly cleaned up, even the loose feathers from Buckbeak had been gathered and placed in a vase like flowers. Harry was surprised at how much had changed with Kreacher since he claimed Malfoy as his master. It was just before sunrise when Harry was woken by the eld. “Miss Weasley has gone, Master is awake.” Harry looked at his watch, she left now? The only thing that made sense was her wanting to be in her bed when her parents awoke. 
> 
> Draco sat up a bit straighter when Kreacher announced Harry, he wasn’t sure what to expect seeing as he was hiding in Harry’s house. He looked a little nervous, definitely not as proud and snobbish as Harry remembered. Harry conjured up a chair and sat and looked at him for a moment. “Um, how are you?” it was lame, but all Harry had to offer right away. It felt awkward feeling like a visitor in his own home. 
> 
> “Better.” He began and his eyes looked around the room before he continued. “I should tell you, Gin – ” Draco began but Harry cut him off. 
> 
> “I know she was here, you don’t need to explain.” Draco seemed to look relieved, as Harry continued. “And I don’t mind you staying here.” Harry just shifted in his seat and tried to ignore the tension between them. “Malfoy, we need to talk about the Death Eaters.” And knowing that Harry was an auror Draco’s instinct was to shrink back, his left arm pushing further under the blanket. “Not you.” Harry said quickly, seeing the already pale man was now even more drained of color. “The ones who are trying to kill you.”
> 
> “I think I can help you, but…you need to help me as well.” Draco began to question Harry and he explained further. “They found you once, because you weren’t really hidden. Sure St. Mungo’s is safe, but it’s only hidden from muggles, as soon as they had confirmation the unnamed wizard in the room was you, they came for you. Kreacher is hiding you now, this house has many protections already and Kreacher added more. But…if you order him not to and you let yourself be found, they will come for you.” Draco just listened silently as Harry continued. “I’ll be here, I’ll take them down before they can even raise their wands.” He sounded like he was making a sales pitch – and perhaps he was. 
> 
> Draco didn’t look convinced, if anything he was suspicious. Why should he take such a risk? He was safe now, he had Ginny coming to him and Kreacher to help him and hide him. Harry knew he had to push it further. “I went to your house.” Harry began and Draco stiffened. “I’m sorry about your parents.” And while he wasn’t really that sorry for Lucius, he was for Narcissa. “Your mum…” Harry swallowed. “She saved my life, did you know that? To get to you, she lied to Voldemort and told him I was dead.” Draco nodded, but knowing Harry had been in the house, possibly seen what happened there made him want to shrink even more. It had been a time of shame and horror in his life and he didn’t want anyone knowing about it.
> 
> “She told me, she… she said she wouldn’t apologise for it because she wanted to get me out.” Draco spoke softly as he eyed the Chosen One. 
> 
> “She deserved better. I gave her – and your father – a proper burial. And then we finished what you started and burned the house down.” And while some men may have been angry at hearing that someone burned down their home, Draco felt relieved. He felt the weight being lifted off him and he let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for months. He uttered a simple and yet very heart felt ‘thank you’ to Harry, who nodded. “Malfoy, these _animals_ need to be taken care of. For your safety, Ginny’s…hell for your mum’s good name.” Draco blanched at that. 
> 
> “Potter…it’s.” But he didn’t have anything he could say, Harry was right. His mother deserved more. “They’re going to kill me anyway, you think you can take them down when they do it then you have my blessing.” He reached to the side table, grabbing one of the potion bottles. Just the fact that someone else knew what they did to his mother, that Harry just **might** know what had been done to him was too much to take. 
> 
> “Kreacher, don’t hide me any longer!” Draco called out, his voice louder now, ringing through the house and he breathed hard, feeling so cold and miserable a dementor could have been in the room. He’d been so happy, even without the potions, to wake up with Ginny, to have had her back to talk to. Now there was Potter taking it all away with reminders of reality. 
> 
> He turned to Harry then with hard eyes. “You listen to me, Potter. It’s on you, if anything happens to her...” He shook his head, trying to think of some threat he could give, but nothing came. So he just tossed back the potion then, swallowing it all in one gulp. Harry watched in amazement as the potion took over Malfoy and his eyes glazed over. Harry knew what he’d done was unfair; he’d not only used Ginny against Draco, but his own mother. He knew he was wrong, but the end would justify the means.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Ginny came through the bedroom door like a fresh breeze, her long red hair behind her as she ran up the stairs and into the room. She stopped so quickly she could have hit an invisible wall. She had told Draco she’d be back as soon as she could and this morning it had been much quicker than she even thought. The sight of Harry in the room startled her. “Harry – what are…” She began and then got a look at Draco. He’d only needed the potions to sleep now, they’d both gotten so much better – and now he was clearly under the effects of a large dose. 
> 
> She went to him quickly and placed a delicate hand on his cheek and turning him to see her. Draco grinned. “My fire…” he muttered with a slur as he reached for her hair. 
> 
> She turned on Harry. “What did you do?” She immediately accused. 
> 
> Harry stared at her with wide eyes. She wasn’t supposed to be back yet. More than that, he wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of that look. “Ginny you need to leave.” Harry knew the protections were down, that they didn’t have much time. Draco was in no state to order Kreacher to hide her like he’d done before. But she wasn’t listening to Harry, instead she was climbing onto the bed and talking softly to Draco. She stroked his cheek while he touched her hair like it was some shining gem. 
> 
> “Ginny, please!” Harry pleaded, walking around the bed and grabbed her arm, pulling her to look at him. “Ginny, you have to go, _now_!” He knew that they would be tracking him, that they had a way to find him and would be trying, especially since they’d been evaded for so long. 
> 
> Her eyes flashed at him. “What did you do, Harry? Why are you even here?!” He felt like a scolded child, and in his own home…and while it didn’t sit well, he was still slightly cowering back from her fury. 
> 
> “I talked to him; it’s what he wants Ginny.” He was louder too, defending himself from the angry red-head. “There’s no protection on the house, they’re going to come for him and I’m going to take them down. I’m doing it for you, he won’t get hurt.” The glare in her eyes was one he’d rarely seen as she drew back and smacked him hard across the face. 
> 
> “Don’t lie to me!” She screamed at him now, her wand raised ready to curse Harry – something most people wouldn’t even think of doing but she had no fear of the boy who defeated Lord Voldemort. “You aren’t doing anything for me! This isn’t for anyone but yourself!” She screamed, her wand so close to his face he’d have to go cross-eyed to see it proper. He backed up some, saying her name, trying to calm her. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if her not speaking for so long was all coming back now in screams. 
> 
> “You promised me, Harry! You fucking swore to me you only wanted to know to keep him safe!” Kreacher was there in an instant, seeing to Malfoy and watching his Mistress ready to battle the savoir of the wizarding world. She glanced over her shoulder at the elf. “I need you, Kreacher, I need you to tell me when they’re coming.” And in her moment of hesitation, Harry grabbed her arm and held her wand aiming at the ground. Ginny didn’t need magic; she’d shown him that once already and didn’t hesitate to smack his face again, pulling away from his grasp. 
> 
> His cheek was burning but he still tried to explain. “I didn’t lie to you!” He reached out to her, but she pulled back, looking to him as if he was something terrible reaching out for her.
> 
> “Don’t!” She snapped, her were knuckles turning white with how tightly she clenched her wand. She stepped closer to Draco as if to protect him. “You told me you’d keep him safe and you just wanted him for bait.” She spoke with more venom than a snake. “I swear to you, Harry, if anything happens to him, I will never forgive you!” She hissed at Harry, but her tone changed immediately ad she turned to Draco, now soft and filled with gentle affection. “I won’t let them hurt you again.” She stroked his hair and he fell asleep with the same smile on his face Harry had seen before. “I won’t let them…” She whispered, leaning in and kissing his forehead. 
> 
> Ginny’s fear was building with every minute they went unprotected. She couldn’t stand to see Draco cursed again, she knew what the Death Eaters were capable of, they would kill him in a second. They’d done things so awful that he needed potions just to make it through the night. It broke her heart. Ginny sat close to Draco as she eyed Harry. “He’s a _person_ , Harry, he’s been through more than you know. You had no right to do this; he’s not your pawn!” She didn’t scream this time, but she didn’t need to, the loathing was clear. “I don’t even know you anymore. When this is over, I never want to see you again.”
> 
> The elf popped in only seconds before the door was literally blown open, catching them both off guard. Ginny turned fast at the explosion, covering Draco protectively with her body while Harry was knocked to the floor. The Death Eaters hadn’t expected anyone else in the room so they aimed simply for Draco with the Cruciatus curse. It hit Ginny square in the back and her immediate screams filled the room as she arched in pain. Harry aimed to the dark wizard and struck hard, the blow breaking his hold on Ginny and letting her fall against Draco’s unconscious body. She shook as she curled up close to Draco’s body. She couldn’t hold back her sobs, but it didn’t stop her from trying to protect Draco. Kreacher jumped onto the bed, using his own magic to shield his master and mistress.
> 
> Harry got what he wanted in the end…the three Death Eaters who came to torture and murder Draco Malfoy, were bound and on their way to Azkaban. Once the house was empty again he was left alone with Kreacher, Draco and Ginny. However, the picture was not one that spoke of a victory. Draco was still unconscious and had possibly taken a curse despite all Ginny and Kreacher tried to do. Ginny curled against Draco, her head buried against him and every part of her body ached. Kreacher limped but had recovered quickly from the swift kick a Death Eater had given him. He stood between Harry and the bed, still protecting his family. 
> 
> Harry took a step forward. “Ginny, are you…” But Kreacher held up a hand to keep Harry from coming any closer moving in any closer to her. He didn’t like being kept from her. “Ginny, I’m sorry. But they’re gone…it’s over.” He still felt he was right in what he did, but Ginny obviously didn’t. 
> 
> “Kre-Kreacher.” She whispered. “Can you take us to the Burrow…please?” She was shaking. She’d been in battle with one of the darkest women of all time, but the unforgiveable to the back had her still unsteady on her feet. The blow had been strong, and it hurt more than she could even explain. She felt like every pain she’d ever had in her life came back to hit her all at once with no warning. Kreacher frowned at Harry before he put his hands on both Draco and Ginny and with a pop they were all gone, leaving Harry alone in the house.
> 
> A startled Molly let out a scream when they appeared in her home. Draco and Ginny appearing on the couch just as they’d been on the bed. She looked up at the sound of her mother’s cry and got to her feet. She moved into her mother, hugging her tight. Before she could even begin to explain why they were there, Harry appeared in the room. “Ginny…please.” 
> 
> “No!” She yelled out as she turned quickly to face him. The nonverbal spell flew at Harry so fast he couldn’t block it and he flew backwards into the wall. He’d forgotten how strong she was in all her time muted.
> 
> “Ginny!” Molly exclaimed as she tried to pull Ginny’s wand arm down. But she wouldn’t be held back even as the rest of the family rushed in. Her wand shook slightly in her anger as she aimed at Harry. “It’s his fault!” She shouted, tears welling up again. 
> 
> Ron was torn, his best mate on the ground and his sister crying and hexing him. He stood between them instead of going to Harry. “Ginny, what are you doing?” He asked her. No one understood what was happening. Ginny stood shaking and ready to strike, Malfoy was unconscious on their sofa with Kreacher at his side. 
> 
> Harry was slowly getting up, rubbing his chest where she’d hit him with the powerful spell. “She’s right.” He croaked out. “It’s my fault.” 
> 
> “I want him gone.” Ginny said in a low angry tone. “Out of this house _now_.” 
> 
> And because it was his Mistress, Kreacher stepped forward towards Harry. “Harry Potter must leave.” Harry looked to Ginny, the anger in her eyes and he knew she wouldn’t listen to reason right now so he nodded. 
> 
> “Okay, Okay, I’m going.” He held up his hands and at the door he looked over his shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He muttered to Ginny before he stepped outside moved across the garden and disapparated. 
> 
> Draco was set up in Fred and George’s old room and Kreacher set up a nest in the wardrobe to be near his master. Ginny personally surrounded the house with numerous protection spells before she’d explain anything to her family. But when she sat down with them, she told them everything she knew – even called Kreacher down to tell what had been said between Harry and Draco. Upon hearing how Harry had manipulated Draco there were several different reactions around the table. Anger and disgust crossed Ginny’s face while Molly and Arthur were stunned to hear that Harry would even think to unprotect someone in Draco’s state of well-being. And Ron was confused and quite upset with his best friend for using the death of his parents against Draco. He knew Harry wanted to take down the Death Eaters, but it didn’t have to happen this way. 
> 
> “I don’t want him in this house.” Ginny told them all and for the time being no one argued with her. She walked slowly up the crooked stairs. She passed her own bedroom and went into Draco’s temporary space. “Kreacher, go back to Number 12, get all the potions, everything you need. We can’t go back there anymore.” She didn’t like to order him, and especially didn’t like to tell him he couldn’t go back to his home. But it just wasn’t safe for them to be there anymore. As Kreacher left, Ginny laid down next to Draco. She wouldn’t sleep – only stay close and alert to protect him. 


	6. The Past

> **AUGUST 1998**  
>  The attack was quick. As soon as the Malfoys came out of hiding and tried to go home again, the jets of red came at them. They’d barely crossed through the gate and all 3 were disarmed and ambushed in the darkness. 
> 
> Draco woke in the dark with his head hanging and chin resting against his chest. His head was pounding and his vision was blurry, the little light in the room only seemed to burn his gray eyes. His ears were filled with the sounds of screaming and jeering and his entire body ached as everything seemed to spin. He tried to stand but couldn’t get to his feet. After a moment he realized he was tied to a beam in his own cellar facing away from the center of the room. He struggled, squirming and shifting until he was scooting around the post. As more light met his sensitive eyes it took him a second to adjust and see what was happening. 
> 
> A blinding rage hit the youngest Malfoy as soon as his vision cleared. His mother was being held down on the floor, the light beamed down on her from above. Her robes were torn and she was being savagely raped by a masked Death Eater. Draco immediately began to fight the bindings as he screamed out “No!” over and over. He pulled hard at the bindings holding his wrists behind his back, burning his wrists. The only notice he got were more jeers and insults at his efforts to get free. 
> 
> He pushed against the beam enough to get himself to his feet while keeping his eyes on his mother’s face. Tears streamed through the filth on her face, her lips red with blood and her eye swollen. Draco screamed and fought for what felt like hours before he was able to pull the ropes loose. He flew at the man accosting his mother with a vengeful fury, knocking him more than a yard away from Narcissa. 
> 
> At the shock of Draco barging in, Narcissa was released and immediately pulled her robes back around herself as she sobbed while all wands were aimed at her son. Draco stood in front of her, wandless but ready to take on anyone who tried to get near his mother. He breathed hard, throat raspy from the screaming, his wrists bled from the severe rope burns but he didn’t care…he would take any of them on. Rockwood, the man he’d knocked to the side had gotten to his feet behind the young boy. With Draco distracted by the crowd before him Rockwood attacked. He reached around from behind Draco, his large rough hand grabbing the boy’s face and pulling him backwards roughly. The back of Draco’s head slammed into the wall with a smack. 
> 
> Narcissa screamed for them to stop as Draco’s body slid to the floor, leaving a trail of blood down the stone wall. She reached quickly for her son, holding him to her and trying to hold a torn bit of her robes against his bleeding head. She cradled him close, knowing at any moment one of the men around them could pull her away and go at her again. Lucius lay in a heap in the corner. He’d tried to protect his wife as well and in return for his efforts he’d been Crucio’d until he blacked out. 
> 
> Blackrook, a man brought in by Greyback and just as volatile as him, spit at Narcissa and Draco both as he walked past them. “I’ll be back.” He growled down with a wicked sneer. Narcissa just curled her body around her son and held him close as she cried. Her own pain didn’t matter anymore, nothing they did to her mattered when her child was hurt.
> 
> * * *
> 
> More happened in the next 36 hours than Draco could really allow himself to comprehend without breaking down. 
> 
> Draco and Lucius both woke hours later Narcissa was at Draco’s side as his eyes opened; her son had always been the most important man in her life. Without wands or potions handy she didn’t have a magical means of healing him so she did the best she could the muggle way – which was not her strong suit. Unfortunately there would be more to come that none of them would be able to heal.
> 
> Blackrook made true on his word and came back – with a friend. He began by taking out his aggression on them all by beating them with his fists like a muggle just to watch them bleed. He forced himself, not just on Narcissa, but on Draco as well – a ruthless punishment for interfering. His mate also took his turns with them both, leaving the broken father to watch helplessly. 
> 
> Mother and son would wake to find Lucius hanging from the rafters, the words ‘I’m sorry’ written in his blood on the wall. He’d been unable to handle the grief after not only witnessing but being unable to help the brutalization of his wife and son. Upon finding the body of Lucius, the Death Eaters took Draco and Narcissa to a room above leaving the patriarch of the Malfoy family to hang alone.
> 
> Draco’s bedroom – ransacked for anything of value first – became their new shared prison. Narcissa slept close to her son in the locked room, holding him protectively like she’d have done after a nightmare when he was young. They slept in shifts to try to protect one another but it didn’t stop the attacks from happening, only gave them enough notice to not be ambushed in their sleep.
> 
> There was little reprieve from the pain. The Death Eaters blamed Narcissa for the fall of their Dark Lord, her lie about Potter cost them everything. Every time the door opened to their prison, they knew what was coming. Draco tried to shield his mother, and keep anyone else from touching her. But he wasn’t even lucky enough for it to not happen in room with him immobilized or knocked out nearby. She’d only ever been drug out when someone wanted the boy, or to bring her down for a group just for pure humiliation.
> 
> * * *
> 
> The last night Draco Malfoy saw his mother alive she was pulled out by her hair while Draco fought until his knuckled bled to stop them. The door opened after he’d worn himself out shouting and beating at the door. A masked man shoved him to the floor roughly. Draco tried to do what his mother had once told him she did, going to another place in her head, blocking it all out…but Draco could never seem to manage it. 
> 
> The young blonde eventually passed out from the pain and woke where he’d been left on the floor. The sun seeped in through torn drapes. This had happened before, but he’d never woke on the floor. His mother would have returned and gotten him into the bed and attended to his wounds. Something was very wrong.
> 
> He pulled himself up on shaky legs and looked around the room. He checked the wardrobe and the water closet, but Narcissa was not there. No one had brought her back the night before. Draco immediately began to panic. They’d always brought her back, usually roughly shoving her back into the room. He finally sank to his knees in the middle of the floor, trying to breathe through the pain still coursing through his body. He couldn’t say what all happened after he passed out, he was only thankful he wasn’t conscious for it. He bled from magical whips to his back, from the rape, from just being struck with fists of much larger men. The movement around the room had been too much for him all at once and he felt like he may pass out again. 
> 
> Until he heard the scream.
> 
> A loud blood-curdling scream reverberated through the walls. His mother’s scream. Draco forced himself back to his feet and made his way to the door. He beat on the door, shouting and begging until his legs went out from under him. It was unlike any scream he’d heard come from her lips before. Exhausted, terrified and in pain it was all too much and Draco couldn’t stop the tears as they began to roll down his face. He tried to continue beating on the door, but he was too weak to make much of an impact and he spoke out of pure desperation, “Please…please help me.” 
> 
> POP. Draco looked up at the sound, seeing an elderly house elf standing before him. 


	7. The Burrow

> **MAY 1999**  
>  Ginny sat against the headboard of the bed as Draco slept beside her. Her eyes were red as she watched him, going many hours without sleep. She knew she could take the potion as well, they had plenty, but if she chose to sleep blissfully beside him she couldn’t protect him. Despite how tired her body was from the attack and the emotional toll it had all taken on her, she refused to give in. 
> 
> “Gin?” Ron asked softly as he came into the room and sat down at the old desk chair. He couldn’t understand what was happening. His baby sister was sitting there in bed with Draco Malfoy. She was clinging to someone he’d spent half of his life hating. She turned her head to look at her brother, but her body seemed to move closer to the blonde beside her. She reached for Draco’s hand, not caring about the scars so close to her. There was a part of her that felt if she was focused on anyone else, she needed to be closer to him physically. Ronald took a deep breath as Ginny’s brow rose curiously. “Gin, uh, what happened?” At her expression he continued. “What happened to make you talk again? What made you better?” 
> 
> Ginny looked to Draco and then back to her brother. “He saved my life.” Ron nodded, he knew about Krecher and the hospital but she shook her head. He didn’t know, she’d never told a soul. “He saved my life at Hogwarts.” Ron blinked a few times, not knowing what she was talking about so she continued. “During the battle. I was upstairs, firing out a hole in the wall.” She gave Draco’s hand a little squeeze. “And someone fired in and it missed me, but hit the ceiling.” The day played like a dark film in her mind. “It was so loud and shook everything. As I fired back, I got knocked down. I was ready to curse whoever attacked me from behind…and I was hit from behind, pushed hard to the floor. It was Draco, he shoved me hard and I was ready to curse him. But then the ceiling came down, right where I’d been standing.” 
> 
> She smiled over to Draco softly. “I’d have died. All he said was ‘tell your brother we’re even’ and he was gone.” Her eyes met Ron’s once more. “I guess it was after you and Harry saved him from the fire.”
> 
> Ron’s eyes were wide with surprise. “Even.” Ron chuckled slightly to himself. “But wait…Gin, that doesn’t answer my question.” 
> 
> “I…” She began, brow furrowing. “Ron, I don’t know if I can explain.” She bit at her lip a little. “It won’t make any sense.” 
> 
> “Try? Please?” Ron urged her to continue. 
> 
> “It hurt. It hurt to talk – to think about talking. All I would see when I slept was death.” She shook her head a little as if trying to shake off the images. “I don’t know; it felt like if I talked it would be even worse. So I stopped. And I know it hurt mum and everyone…but I just…couldn’t. It was as if nothing in the world would ever be right again. I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense, and I can’t explain it. It just…hurt.” 
> 
> Ron shifted in his seat, not knowing how to make this better. He hated his sister being in pain, and while she seemed okay being close to Malfoy…it was still Malfoy. How could someone like him make anything better? Ginny reached over, pushing some of Draco’s hair off his forehead and action that made Ron feel like he was intruding on some kind of intimate moment between them.
> 
> “It’s still hard and – “
> 
> “What did _he_ do? How did _he_ make you feel better?” Ron interrupted, feeling like he needed to know. He needed to know what was so good in this guy who was nothing but horrible most of his life. He needed to know before he could feel comfortable with a former Death Eater in his home. He didn’t want to be worried, he didn’t want to make Ginny think he didn’t trust her judgement, he couldn’t let this go. 
> 
> “I know what he was…I know it’s difficult for you to understand, for him to even be here.” She could hear it in his voice that he didn’t trust Draco. “He’s not the same person you remember, I don’t know if he ever really was.” She thought about telling Ron about the potion, about how it took their pain away…but stopped herself. That was for her and Draco and something felt wrong about letting anyone else in. She would risk that her brother wouldn’t understand, that he’d try to take it away…try to take Draco away. It was far too frightening for her to risk. 
> 
> “Ron, you went to his house, you saw…whatever it was. Kreacher won’t tell me because it was so bad he doesn’t want to speak of it.” She was whispering, despite Draco being unconscious, she didn’t want him to hear her talking about his pain. “Would you be the same person after living through that? Are you…are you the same person you were before you left with Harry, before the war?” 
> 
> “I…” Ron began, swallowing hard and taking a moment to think about it. “I want to be, but no, I’m not.” He replied honestly. “I don’t think I ever really knew what I was getting into, what I’d have to do or what I could lose. I just wanted to help. I wanted to, I don’t know, save the world I guess.” He chuckled dryly at himself. “Ginny, are you really okay? I mean…” 
> 
> “I’m not the same either. None of us are really.” Both of them thought of Harry then. Ron wasn’t angry with Harry like Ginny, but he knew that he was not the same Harry he’d met when he was 11. “I’m all right though.” She said the words but she wasn’t completely sure they were true. 
> 
> “You have to understand something.” She began again. “If he were the same, if he were the terrible person who let Death Eaters into school…he wouldn’t have kept me safe. Thinka bout it, he could have told Kreacher to take him away, to just disapperate to some island somewhere. But in the two seconds he had to make a choice, he told Kreacher to keep me safe.” She smiled, and despite her tired eyes it looked sincere to Ron. “I care about him. I really, really care.”
> 
> Nodding, Ron stood up. He stepped closer to the bed and smiled a little to his sister. “I know you do.” He leaned in and gave her a small hug. “But if…if he hurts you.” Ron began, a serious expression on his face as he looked to Draco and then to Ginny. “He won’t have to worry about Death Eaters. I’ll kill him myself.” 
> 
> **JUNE 1999**  
>  After a few weeks in the Burrow under the care of Molly and Kreacher, both Ginny and Draco lost the gaunt look in their faces. Food was a comfort in the Weasley home and Molly served some of the best meals Draco had ever eaten. Kreacher took to helping the rest of the family as they helped care for his master. Molly had been unsure at first, but it wasn’t long before they were cooking side by side in the cozy family kitchen. 
> 
> Draco began to feel hope in his time with Ginny at the Burrow. The longer he was with her, the more his pain seemed to fade and he thought he just _might_ be okay. The only problem Draco had was Mr.  & Mrs. Weasley. They were good parents…but they weren’t his and he missed his father and mother more than he could express. He regretted how badly he’d spoken of the Weasley family in the past, of everything he’d ever said about the kind woman who had taken him in. Did they have much? No. But the difference he noticed was that they never hesitated to share what little they had. Something his family had never done. 
> 
> Draco didn’t feel like he deserved all they did for him, how kind they were. He tried on many occasions to apologize to them, but it was only Ron who didn’t shush him and tell him all was fine now. To Ron, it wasn’t fine and may never be fine. 
> 
> “I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I know don’t deserve it.” Draco said softly as the two young men sat in the garden to talk alone. “You’ve got every right to hate me after all that’s happened. I treated you all badly and I never really knew you. I could blame my upbringing or my circumstance, but it doesn’t really matter at this point. All I want you to know is that I’m sorry. Truly sorry for everything I said and did. I was a fool and I can’t take it back. But I hope you know that part of me is gone. I am not that person now. All that matters to me is Ginny.” 
> 
> Ron’s brow furrowed some at that, he didn’t know quite what to make of Malfoy and Ginny. He knew they were close, too close in his opinion. But in what way he didn’t know. They shared a bed most night, but never seemed physically affectionate. Their relationship seemed to be more than friends but less than romantic. “Why?” Ronald asked bluntly. “Why are you telling me this now? And why Ginny?”
> 
> Draco couldn’t help but turn his head back to look towards the house, knowing she was in there somewhere, knowing she was likely watching them right then to be sure a fight didn’t break out. But he didn’t mind. “Because now we’re both of a clear enough mind to talk about it, I suppose. And frankly, I don’t want my shame to control me.” 
> 
> “I hope you weren’t expecting some bonding moment here where we become friends for life.” Ron replied with a scoff. 
> 
> Draco let out a dry chuckle. “Definitely not.” He was going on a small amount of his potion today and was already craving more.
> 
> “Why Ginny?” Ron asked again, almost coldly. “You two have nothing in common.”
> 
> “I wouldn’t say _nothing_ ” Draco replied only to hear immediately from Ron that having attended the same school and sharing a room in a hospital didn’t count. Draco just shrugged and stood. What he had in common with Ginny wasn’t anything Ronald would understand. The two hadn’t had a confrontation since Draco’s arrival – but they also kept their distance from one another. The rest of the family didn’t seem to mind the house guest but Ron still didn’t trust Draco – especially not with his sister. 
> 
> “You’re not good enough for her.” Ron spat back as they both stood. 
> 
> Draco’s face fell a little. “Yeah, I know.” Ron blinked after him as he walked away – he’d expected a fight, some nonsense about being better than everyone, but perhaps Ginny was right…maybe Malfoy was actually capable of change. 
> 
> **JULY 1999**  
>  There were talks in the beginning about it being inappropriate that Ginny continued to climb into Draco’s bed at night – but after the first month Arthur and Molly gave up on arguing the matter. They had come to realize that there wasn’t anything happening I the room except sleeping. They’d never once caught the two doing anything more than sharing a chaste kiss goodnight. It seemed to help them both with their recoveries to be together so the family eventually just allowed it to happen.
> 
> Of course this did not stop Arthur to make it quite clear to Draco that any ‘funny business’ would have him booted out the door. 
> 
> What none of them understood was it was more Draco holding them back from anything further. Ginny had always been the one to lean in for the kiss, to hold his hand. Physical contact was hard for Draco – and while he had grown to trust Ginny so much that he was able to hold onto her – he still didn’t feel like he was worthy of anything more with her. He had been used, broken and now disgusted himself. He rarely ever looked in mirrors, he didn’t like being naked. Looking down so much on himself for what happened, living in so much shame for it – he couldn’t even begin to think that she would see anything different in him.
> 
> * * *
> 
> As the weeks moved on, Draco began to feel safe again. Began to feel secure in this home and with this family. The more time he spent with Ginny, the more he wanted to be better – for her. But rather than address what truly pained him deep down, he decided it was the potions he needed to deal with first. He decided he was too dependent on a potion, that he didn’t need it anymore. 
> 
> So on that warm July night with the window’s open blowing in a summer breeze, Draco declined the offer of the potion. “No, I don’t need it.” He told Ginny. Her brow furrowed some, but she didn’t question him with words, she didn’t need words with him. She worried that if he was better, he wouldn’t need her so close to him at night – when she still needed him near her. Or maybe just told herself it was a need when really she just wanted it more than she understood.
> 
> Draco reached to tuck back her ginger hair. “I still need you.” He told her softly as if able to read her mind. “You’ll stay, won’t you?”
> 
> “Nowhere I’d rather be.” She assured him as she leaned over to peck a small kiss to the side of his mouth before lying down close to him. She curled herself up against his side, finding her nook there as his arm moved around her. 
> 
> He began to move late in the night, tossing in the bed they shared and waking Ginny with his stirring. His mind filled with the images of his past that he’d worked so hard to push away. The vulnerability of sleep working against his mind. Ginny lost her hold on him, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She reached for her wand, lighting a lantern near the bed and keeping the light low as she turned to him. 
> 
> His head moved from side to side as he began to mumbles. “Mother…” He seemed to whimper as if he’d been sobbing – and Ginny could see then that he was in fact crying in his sleep. She reached for him as the nightmare took hold of him. “No…stop…”His pleading was too much, she had to wake him. 
> 
> Ginny touched his face as she tried to speak soothingly, waking him gently. “Draco, Draco stop…it’s just a dream... Draco wake up.” She anticipated the move and leaned back as he shot up, waking with a start. He breathed hard, body trembling slightly as he looked around sharply. He was sure he was back in that room, back where he’d lost his mother. Ginny reached over, touching his cheek and bringing his attention to her. “It’s okay, love. It’s over now.” And as she opened her arms to him he nearly collapsed into her embrace. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight against her small frame as she spoke softly against his neck. “I’m right here, it’s okay. It was just a bad dream.” 
> 
> It took him a moment to catch his breath and wipe his face from sweat and tears. He shook his head and muttered. “Not a dream, bad memories.” Ginny frowned as she rubbed his back, trying to remind him that it was over now. She didn’t know how to make this better for him. When she offered him the potion he was silent for a long time, just staring at the bottle. And then to the photo of the Weasley family next to it. They were at Kings Cross her first year. He looked at all their smiles and pride and he wanted it, wanted the normalcy of a family that loved one another…to be able to sleep and not need something to make the shame and pain go away. 
> 
> His sinuses burned with the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. He didn’t answer her, he just pulled her close and hugged her tight to him. He was scared, scared of how he felt for her, scared of not having her, scared of the need he felt. He buried his face in her red hair and just held on for a long moment. Ginny didn’t understand it, but she didn’t need to understand it to give him what he needed. “I’m right here.” And she had no idea how much knowing those words were true helped him.
> 
> “I…” He began, still clinging to her. “I miss my mum.” He told her softly. He gave up trying to hold back his tears now. “I…I couldn’t protect her.” He sniffled and tried to straighten his back. He met Ginny’s eyes with a serious expression. “But I’ll protect you, Gin, I promise.” He was more convincing himself than her. She’d never doubted his ability to do so, not since the first time he’d saved her during the battle.
> 
> “I know you will.” She told him with a smile and stroked his cheek. “And I’ll protect you, too.” He gave her half a smile, all he could muster. He wanted to tell her what happened, tell her about the nightmares, and tell her why he was so broken. But at the same time he just wanted her to hold him – and worried if she knew that holding onto him would be the last thing she would do. 
> 
> Draco couldn’t help his own testosterone fueled fears that she would be repulsed by the things he’d done, things he’d been made to do. Or even turned away by the things he’d seen…any of it could scare her off or make her look at him differently. He needed her too much to take the risk so instead he reached for the potion, giving her a little and taking the rest for himself. Their reactions seemed to mimic one another as their eyes closed and contented smiles formed on their lips. They curled into one another and soon drifted into a dreamless sleep.


	8. The Re-Opening

> **SEPTEMBER 1999**  
>  Ginny looked up at the winged hog statues at the gate that seemed to loom ominously over her. Ginny didn’t know if those statues had to be replaced as well, they didn’t look the same, something in the eyes seemed off. The wind blew, cold and crisp in the fall weather. “I don’t want to do this.” She said in a soft whisper. She looked around, her parents at her side. “Mum, you can school me at home, I don’t need to come back here.”
> 
> But Molly stood still like the statues, staring up the hill towards the castle. “Mum?” Ginny spoke louder. “Mum!” She screamed then, but Molly didn’t move a muscle. Ginny moved around to stand in front of her mother, forcing the woman to see her. But it was not the sight she expected. The body of her mother was faceless, just a blank slate where her kind face should be. 
> 
> Ginny stumbled back, bumping into someone else. She turned and gasped in horror. There was Fred standing before her – but not as she remembered him happy and young. He was decrepit and rotting away. He took hold of her arm and pulled her towards the school. “C’mon Ginny, it’s time to go back to Hogwarts.” He told her with a frightening smile. 
> 
> “No.” Ginny whimpered. “I don’t want to go back.” But he tugged on her arm and her body seemed to be pulled forward with him no matter how much she fought it. 
> 
> More bodies joined Fred’s efforts as they moved up the path. Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks. Ginny begged them to let her go, but none seemed to hear or understand. “You have to go back to school, Ginny. You need your education. Hogwarts needs you, Ginevra.”
> 
> Lavender Brown, looking torn and broken, Colin Creevey still small as ever, Severus Snape…all looking like Inferi as they moved slowly but with great strength pulling her along. Their hands were cold as they grabbed her, eventually lifting her off the ground and carrying her to the castle. 
> 
> “Wait!” Ginny called out, looking back from where she came. Where was he? He promised he’d protect her, he promised he’d stay with her. “Wait, please!” She screamed out as the castle grew larger as she got closer. She pushed through the threshold and dropped near the large wooden door at the front of the building. The dead stood behind her like a barrier, not letting her turn back as the door opened slowly. 
> 
> The figure standing in the doorway was one Ginny knew and feared. A young Tom Riddle with that charming smile. He held out his hand to Ginny. “Come along, Ginevra, we’re not finished yet.” He told her. The dead behind her seemed to triple in size all pushing her forward and closer to Tom.
> 
> “No!” She called out, trying to stop her feet from sliding across the floor. “No! Stop!” She looked back over her shoulder again. “Draco?!” She turned looking for the one who could make her safe again.
> 
> “Come back to me, Ginny.” Tom’s voice was soft and almost sweet. When she looked at him, she could see he was floating over a large opening in the floor. The opening to the Chamber of Secrets. As she looked at him in terror, he changed…his handsome features went flat and his skin paled as he turned into Lord Voldemort right before her eyes. 
> 
> She was frozen in fear as he continued to change, to morph into a giant snake that moved fast as it aimed to strike her with its razor teeth. 
> 
> A loud scream rang out throughout the Burrow as Ginny sat up sharply. Tears rolled down her face and her chest rose and fell with heavy breathing. Draco woke with a start at her screams, turning to her quickly only to be shoved away in her panic. He lit her wand and let it fall to the bed, lighting the room with the soft glow. “Gin, it’s okay.” He told her as he took hold of her so she could see him in the light. “It’s me, Gin, it’s okay. It wasn’t real, you’re home. I’m right here. She shoved hard, throwing off blankets and shoving Draco away from her in the process. As she took notice to him and where she was she stopped fighting him and shook with continued fear. He pushed wet hair off her forehead and pulled her against him. “It wasn’t real, love.” He whispered. 
> 
> Both were startled again when the bedroom door swung open, Molly and Arthur standing with wands raised. Hearing their daughter scream woke them both and send them running from the floor below. They relaxed and lowered the wands when they found Ginny clinging to Draco as she sobbed. “I don’t want to go back, I don’t want to.” She was covered in a cold sweat and Draco was rubbing her back. 
> 
> She had told them all she wouldn’t go back and no one was attempting to force her to do so. It had become clear over her recovery, clear with the fire that Hogwarts was not the place for Ginny. Molly walked into the room and sat on the side of the bed. She reached for her daughter, taking him from Draco’s arms and rocking her slightly. “You don’t have to go, love, you don’t have to go anywhere.” Molly told her softly. 
> 
> It had begun to feel like the only demons they had any longer were those deep inside themselves. As soon as Molly and Arthur went back to bed, Draco pulled out his potions, giving Ginny a dose to get through the night, and a little more for himself as well. It was all too much for them to handle on their own. Ginny relaxed against him as the potion took over her senses, lying back with Draco and letting peace find her.
> 
> * * *
> 
> The re-opening of Hogwarts was an occasion so grand it needed more than a welcome feast. All Hogwarts students, alumni, and their families were invited to the opening night celebration. The halls expanded and the feats nearly tripled in size. All were invited even if they didn’t have anyone attending the school. Anyone who wanted to celebrate was welcome. 
> 
> Ginny and Draco were two of the few who would not be in attendance. Ginny’s recent nightmares kept anyone from even asking if she’d like to attend and Draco wouldn’t leave her side even if he’d actually wanted to go. There was a strong bond between them that no one seemed to completely understand. 
> 
> No one expected the attack to come that day, they felt safe in the Burrow; so safety enchantments on the property hadn’t been set in weeks. Draco and Ginny sat in the garden, enjoying their time alone as they ate a late breakfast. Draco didn’t see the stunner coming and was blasted out of his chair and toppled across the grass. Ginny was instantly on her feet with her wand raised. She turned in circles trying to see where the shot came from with a mix of fear and anger in her eyes. But Blackrook wasn’t in sight, he was inside the house firing from the kitchen window after stunning Kreacher so the meddling elf wouldn’t interfere with his business. 
> 
> The blast came at her from the last place she’d expect – her own home. It threw her backwards and knocking the wand from her hand as she cried out. As she tried to recover from the blast to the chest Blackrook emerged from the back door in full Death Eater dress and aimed his wand at her again. “Stop!” She yelled out, lunging for her wand but coming up short. She was stopped by the ropes that shot out of the Death Eaters wand and bound her where she lay in the grass. She looked to the unconscious boy and screamed out as she struggled against the ropes. “Draco! Draco, get up!” She tried to inch herself closer but the ropes circled her legs and made it hard to move. She just needed to get to her wand…just a little further.
> 
> Blackrook moved towards her, pausing at Draco’s unconscious form and giving him a swift kick to the ribs before continuing towards the petite ginger. “Scared?” He asked her, grinning from behind his mask.
> 
> “Of a coward who strikes a man in the back and a wandless witch? Hardly.” She glared up at him and hid the fear she truly felt. 
> 
> “You will be.” He told her coldly. He removed his mask and Ginny was sure his actual face was far more frightening than the mask. He reached down and fisted her long red hair, using it to pull her up to a seated position. 
> 
> Draco’s entire body ached as he began to wake. The first thing to come into focus was the dark black wood of her wand in the tall grass. He moved towards it slowly but as soon as he had it in his hand Blackrook turned towards him. Draco pushed the wand up his sleeve quickly so not to be disarmed and glared up at the man. “You want me, not her.” He spoke in a harsh voice as he stood. “Just let her go.”
> 
> Blackrook laughed and quickly aimed to Draco – another rope flew from the wand, wrapping around the young boy’s middle and tying his arms behind his back. With another swish, he’d knocked Draco back to sit on the ground. “You made a big mistake, Malfoy.” Blackrook sneered. “And I’m going to rip you apart. But first I’m going to fuck your little girlfriend to death, just like I did your mother.” 
> 
> Draco caught the terrified look in Ginny’s eyes. “Don’t fucking touch her!” He shouted, fighting against the ropes. He was instantly taken back the moment he woke in the cellar, arms tied behind him as the most important woman in his life was about to be hurt. “No!” he screamed out. He’d been ready to die, he knew it was coming. But not Ginny, she didn’t deserve this. 
> 
> Blackrook looked at Draco with stony eyes as he swung his hand backwards and hit Ginny’s face hard. She yelped while the Death Eater laughed and pulled her up again. Her lip was busted and bloody and he smiled wickedly at her as he leaned in close. He licked the blood from her mouth. “Mmm, pure-blood, my favorite.” And it took everything in Ginny not to vomit right there. 
> 
> With a wave of his wand, the ropes fell from her body, Ginny made to run as soon as she was loose, but Blackrook was quicker, grabbing her and throwing her back to the ground before she got more than two steps away. The wind knocked out of her with the force that she hit the hard ground. And as she coughed, the dark wizard moved in to hold her to the ground. 
> 
> “Blackrook, stop!” Draco yelled out as he began to shake, trying to get the wand out of his sleeve. Ginny yelled and fought against the hold of the man, but it didn’t do any good. “Just kill me and leave her alone!” Draco knew he had to get the wand out, he had to stop this. He knew Blackrook, he wasn’t just vicious, he was pure evil. He didn’t just rape, he tortured those he abused, he wanted to see tears and blood. He’d been responsible for the lashes on Draco’s back, the scars left on his mother. He knew what Ginny would face…the same shame and pain he felt every day. 
> 
> Blackrook laughed at the yelling from them both. “Go on, girl, I like a fighter.” He breathed on Ginny and it only made her kick harder – trying hard to free just one leg to wound him with. His hand took hold of her neck, squeezing against her throat. She clawed at his arm and fingers, trying to loosen his hold – and just when she thought she was going to black out, he loosened up just enough for her to take in a breath. 
> 
> As Draco struggled to get the wand down his sleeve, Blackrook forced Ginny’s legs apart with his knee. With a flick her dress was up at her waist and pressed his wand to her bare leg above her knee. The dark magic cut into her skin like a knife as it moved up her thigh – cutting through the fabric of the dress as it cut into her skin. Ginny let out a scream unlike any Draco had ever heard. 
> 
> “Ginny!” Draco screamed out, terrified he wouldn’t be able to stop this. He wouldn’t be able to save her. “Ginny, I’m sorry!” She looked over to him, tears streaming down her face as the cut continued to move up her leg. She’d never felt so weak in her life. Draco struggled until he freed the wand from his sleeve. Seeing the blood spill over Ginny’s pale freckled thighs Draco didn’t even consider the danger as he gripped the wand tight and muttered, “Diffendo”. He winced as the severing charm cut into his side like a knife. “Dammit. Diffendo.” He tried again, hand shaking as his shirt stained red with blood. 
> 
> The ropes fell away from him and Draco pushed himself to his feet. Blackrook turned as the boy stood, glaring at him. “Avada kedavra!” Draco yelled out sending the deadly green light directly for the Death Eater. Blackrook fell sideways and Ginny immediately sat up, pressing her torn skirt against her bleeding leg. 
> 
> Draco rushed to her, falling to his knees at her side. “Are you okay?” He asked, his heart racing with fear. Ginny breathed hard, reaching slowly for her wand – a wand that had just killed a man. Once it was back in her grasp she moved forward, wrapping her arms around Draco and held him close to her as they both allowed themselves to break down and cry.
> 
> The entire Weasley family appeared, lead by Harry, only moments after the curse was spoken. The unforgivable curse triggered alarms that brought everyone back immediately. Molly rushed for her daughter, fearful tears in her eyes as she knelt down and began to heal her daughter.
> 
> Draco took a step back and turned. “Potter.” Harry locked eyes with him, green met grey and this time only the green looked cold and hard. “I did it. With Ginny’s wand.”
> 
> * * *
> 
> “We need to talk.” Harry’s words came stern – using the voice of an Auror, not a family friend. The family looked up from the table where they all sat discussing the events of the afternoon. Ginny and Draco explained what happened, who the death eater had been. But neither Draco nor Ginny mentioned the evil man’s words about Narcissa. 
> 
> Kreacher quickly moved between Harry and the family. “Mistress says you are not to be here, Harry Potter.” And Harry just gave an annoyed stare towards Ginny, silently telling her to call off the elf. This was a serious matter – one of Ministry business. 
> 
> “It’s okay, Kreacher” Ginny said, meeting Harry’s eyes. She was still furious with him, but he’d just removed a body from her garden…she needed his help. Ginny didn’t want Harry to know everything she’d told the family, she only had one thing to tell him. She stood, stepping over to him and held out her wand. “I did it.”
> 
> “Ginny!” Draco snapped, standing.
> 
> “No, Draco. It’s my wand.” She tried to stare him back into his seat. She needed to protect him this time. Harry wouldn’t arrest her, she was sure of that much. 
> 
> Draco sighed as the family watched them. “Gin,” He moved over, placing a gentle hand against her back. “I already told him.” Her face paled as she turned to meet his silver eyes. 
> 
> “Well then, you, you lied!” She stuttered and turned to Harry. “He lied, he didn’t do anything.”
> 
> Harry let out a sigh. “Enough.” He hated this, he hated seeing her so adamant to protect a Malfoy. Who was he to her? Why was she behaving this way? Harry glanced around to the rest of the family and then back to Draco and Ginny. Did they all approve of this? Did they all just accept what Ginny chose to bring home? “Just, tell me what happened, the _truth_.” 
> 
> Ginny close to Draco, not letting go of his hand. “I don’t know how he got here, we were sitting outside and the curse came out of nowhere. He-he hurt Ginny, he was going to…” Draco swallowed hard as Ginny’s head lowered and she tried not to look anyone in the eyes. They all seemed to know exactly what nearly happened to her just by the state they’d found her in. Draco understood that shame, when people knew too much and he wasn’t going to make it worse. He gave her hand a squeeze. “He was going to kill her.” 
> 
> “He would have killed us both, it was self-defense.” Ginny added. “You can’t take him in, Harry, you can’t. He saved my life.” She pleaded with her ex-boyfriend for the fate of the man she considered to be hers. When Harry just stared at her she seemed to feel the need to make her push harder. “That bastard would have killed us all and you know it!”
> 
> “I can’t ignore this, Ginny!” Harry snapped back, still anger residing between them both. Draco sighed and lowered his head as he held onto Ginny’s hand and moved his thumb against the back. He wanted to memorize how she felt – fearing it would be a long time before he’d get to hold her again. “He’s a former Death Eater who performed an unforgivable curse on another Death Eater! **Unforgivable** Ginny. I am not the only one at the ministry who knows it happened.”
> 
> “Yes you are!” She shouted back. “I’m not daft, Harry, I grew up knowing about the Ministry, they know a curse was performed here, not who did it.” And she wasn’t wrong in that. “For all they know, that bastard tried to kill one of us and it backfired. Anything could have happened. You **don’t** have to do this!” Angry tears burned her cheeks as she stood up, needing to be higher up, to feel she still had some power left. But Draco’s hand still in hers brought her back down to his side. She took in a deep breath and let her body relax against Draco’s side. “You owe him, Harry, and you know it.”
> 
> Harry’s mind filled with images from months before. The failed plan. The invasion on Number 12. Ginny’s scream when she was cursed. Draco’s unconscious body on the sofa. Being banished from a place that had always felt like home to him. He hated the truth in her words, hated to admit it, but she wasn’t wrong. 


	9. The Spoken Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I wrote in the summary, this story was completed but it never felt right to me. So I went back, made some edits and am working to fix the ending. This is the first chapter that is new and not just corrected...but I'd like to older stuff re-read if you can...so it all makes sense again. Thanks so much for reading!!

 

> **OCTOBER 1999**  
>  Draco’s eyes moved around the table as they all sat down for dinner… Harry and Hermione had both come to dinner that evening and it was making Draco feel incredibly uncomfortable. He’d not spoken to Harry since the attack the month before. Harry and Ginny seemed to have an unspoken agreement that they were on even terms now. While Harry had brought upon the acts in Number 12, he’d also made sure Draco didn’t serve any time in Azkaban so Ginny allowed him back in the house. But she never looked at him the same again, her complete trust in him had been tarnished.
> 
> Despite the apologies Draco made, Ron still eyed him suspiciously – especially when Hermione was nearby. The trio didn’t seem to trust Draco and it made Ginny even more protective of him. 
> 
> Harry glanced to Ron and Hermione before he spoke up in the middle of supper. “So, Malfoy, any plans on moving out of here?”
> 
> Ginny’s eyes shot up quickly, glaring at Harry then to her brother. Ron’s head was down, his eyes focused on his chicken and she knew he was behind this. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley froze with forks in the air and glanced to the guests at their table.
> 
> “Just making conversation.” Harry feigned innocence in response to Ginny’s glare.
> 
> “It’s not as if Harry asked him to go sleep outside, Gin. He just asked about his plans. Stop looking at him that way.” But now her glare just turned on her brother.
> 
> “This was your doing, wasn’t it?” Ginny shot back. 
> 
> “So what if it was? He’s not hurt anymore, he’s a grown man he should be on his own.”
> 
> “Why? You’re not.” Ginny retorted. 
> 
> Ron just glared back at her. “It’s _my_ house, excuse me if I don’t want a Death Eater living with my family. Hasn’t he done enough damage here?!”
> 
> “He hasn’t done _any_ damage!” Ginny shouted, eyes like fire as she stared down her brother across the kitchen table. 
> 
> “Okay, enough.” Molly interrupted. “It’s not up to either of you who stays in this house. It’s up to your father and myself and Draco is welcome to stay as long as he likes.” Ginny gave Ron an I-told-you-so expression and he rolled his eyes at her. “Ron, you know this family doesn’t turn away friends in need and we never will.”
> 
> “Yeah, _friends_ ” Ron muttered under his breath – but not quietly enough to keep it from Ginny’s ears. 
> 
> “Shut your mouth!” Ginny snapped, getting to her feet, hand clenching her wand. 
> 
> Draco reached up and placed his hand over hers, lowering her wand for her. He met her eyes with a soft expression. “Stop.” He said softly, not taking his eyes off her until she sat back down. He didn’t want any more fighting – and especially didn’t want to be the cause of it between family. “Perhaps I have overstayed my welcome.”
> 
> “Clearly.” 
> 
> “Ronald, that’s enough.” Molly snapped before Ginny could get a word in. “Draco, dear, I meant what I said you are welcome to stay as long as you’d like.”
> 
> The rest of the meal was spent in a disgruntled silence as they ate quickly just to end the meal sooner. As soon as the dishes were cleared. Everyone began to clear out of the kitchen. Ron and Harry slipped out first, wanting to discuss the evening and Draco took his chance and got Hermione’s attention before she could follow them.
> 
> “May I speak with you?” He asked in a voice Hermione nearly didn’t recognize. When she nodded he sat back down at the table and the others made their way out. Ginny, however, made a point to linger at the doorway. “I want to apologize to you. I’ve considered sending you an owl, but every time I started to write, the words didn’t seem to come.” Hermione sat staring at him, unsure of how to respond. “I am very sorry for how I treated you. I spent a lot of my life angry with you and…incredibly jealous. I was raised to believe that a pure-blood magic was the best kind of magic, and then there you were. Muggle-born and besting me in every class. I took out a lot of my anger on you because of it. But…I honestly never wanted you to come to actual harm. I-I’m sorry.” 
> 
> Hermione sat in silence for a long time, taking in everything he said. She watched him closely for any sign of deceit, but she couldn’t see any. She glanced over to Ginny who stood near the door and then back to Draco. She gave him a small smile and nodded. “Thank you for saying that, Draco.”
> 
> Hermione stood and Draco immediately stood as well as his high-society life had taught him. She looked at him for a second and then held out a hand to him. Ronald held a grudge, could hold one for a long time – he still didn’t think the same of Viktor Krum. Draco blinked at her hand for a second and took in a breath. This wasn’t what he expected to happen – if anything he expected her to punch him again. 
> 
> As he extended his hand and grasped hers the door flew open. “Don’t touch her!” Ronald’s voice boomed. Draco acted on instinct, jumping back and reaching for his wand, but Ron’s was already aimed at him.
> 
> “Ron!” Hermione looked at Ron as if he was insane “What are you doing?! He was apologizing to me!”
> 
> Ginny shoved her brother aside as she moved close to Draco who stood with hands raised defensively. “They were shaking hands, the same thing you should have done when he apologized to you, you insufferable arse!” 
> 
> “I don’t care! He ruins everything he touches! Look at what happened to you!” Sparks flew from the tip of Ron’s wand without his meaning to. “I couldn’t help you; I won’t make that mistake again and let him bring his cursed life around anyone else I care about!”
> 
> * * *
> 
> Ginny rolled to the side and reached for Draco, but when her arm came up cold she woke with concern. She blinked a few times as she saw him sitting on the side out of bed, just out of her reach. With his back to her and his head hanging low she knew he was still thinking about Ron’s words. He’d not talked to her about it yet, but for the last week he’d been acting even more quiet than usual. 
> 
> She frowned and sat up, reaching out to him. “Can’t sleep?” She asked, though the answer was clear. She wanted him to talk to her – but she of all people understood how hard it could be to speak. He shook his head and turned to look at her in moonlight. 
> 
> After a long silence, he finally spoke. “Why don’t you hate me?” Her brow furrowed. “You should hate me. If not for me then you’d never have gotten hurt, never have been cursed or cut.” He sighed and hung his head. “Ron is right; it’s my fault what happened to you. It’s my fault the house has to always be under enchantments. If I wasn’t here you’d be safe.”
> 
> “That’s ridiculous.” She replied, reaching for her wand to light up the dark room. “First of all, Ron is _never_ right. Secondly, none of that is your fault.”
> 
> Draco turned on the bed, taking her wand out of her hand and lighting up her bare legs. The scar stood out in the bright light of the wand. “That is my fault.” He told her, pain in his eyes at the mere sight of the jagged mark on her leg. He reached down, covering only part of the long mark with the palm of his hand. “If I’d never left that house, he wouldn’t ever have touched you. If I never left that house you wouldn’t have been cursed at the other house. You didn’t deserve that, not any of it.”
> 
> She took the wand from his hand and tossed it to the bedside table still lit. She took his hand off her scar and placed it against her chest. “Do you feel that?” She asked, her heart beating under his hand. He nodded but didn’t want to meet her eyes. “ _That_ is your fault. I am alive because of you.” He shook his head. 
> 
> “I want to show you something.” She continued and pulled away from him. She pointed to the scar on her leg. “From a Death Eater.” She pointed to another on her shoulder “Death Eater.” Another on her arm. “Death Eater.” She pointed to a small white mark near her eyebrow. “Quidditch practice.” She lifted her foot to a scar on the bottom. “Broken glass.” Ginny looked to him, trying to show him her point. “I have a lot of scars, Draco. But only one heart.”
> 
> Draco was quiet for a while, considering all she’d said, what she’d shown him. He lowered his head as he considered his next move. Finally he gave in and turned to her. He held out his arm. “Voldemort and Death Eaters, I don’t remember who they were.” He revealed about his dark mark and the words ‘traitor’ written over it. He took her hand and pressed her fingers into his hair. “Blackrook.” He held out his arms, the scars around his wrist. “Ropes.” He took a deep breath and lifted his shirt over his head. “Harry.” He muttered about the scar across his torso. He turned his back to her and revealed several scars as if he’d been whipped. “I know some are Blackrook, but I don’t know about all of them.” He admitted softly, his voice shaking some as he spoke. 
> 
> Ginny had seen the scars, but he’d never spoken about then before. He couldn’t meet her eyes. She looked at the marks on his back – knowing why he always wore a shirt. The marks went from his shoulders all the way down his back and past his shorts. She knew the marks continued down his backside. She frowned as she shifted closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her as if he was the smaller of the two of them. He curled against her, his head resting against her chest as he listened to her heart beating. 
> 
> He kept his head down as he began to speak, hiding from her eyes more than hiding his own. “We were in the house for months. They locked us in the cellar, it was like karma, that’s where we locked up…the others.” He swallowed back his emotions as best he could. He had to get through this. He needed her to see he was no good and had to leave. “I woke up and heard my mum. They were...”
> 
> “Draco you don’t have to do this…” She whispered, stroking is head. 
> 
> “Yes, I do.” He replied, closing his eyes tight and trying not to see the memories he spoke of. “They were raping my mother. They held her down and were all watching.” His voice shook. “And I was tied up and I just kept screaming to stop. I pulled loose somehow and shoved him off her. I couldn’t stand it, the way they touched her. The…the way they touched me.” 
> 
> Draco’s voice broke as he revealed his biggest secret to the woman he trusted most in the world. Ginny finally understood, it wasn’t just beatings, he’d been abused just as his mother had. Instead of pulling away from him in disgust like he’d expected, she wrapped her arms around him tighter. At her embrace he broke down, his tears falling freely as he let out a soft sob. His arms wrapped around her middle. 
> 
> Once he’d begun he knew he had to get it all out. If he didn’t do it now he never would. He told her about how Lucius killed himself, about how he and Narcissa had been locked up together for months. How they tried and failed to keep one another safe. “They always brought her back before I woke up.” He muttered, head still buried against her. “I tried to get out, I tried.” His tears fell against her nightgown as he sobbed. He told her how Kreacher came to get him but not before he started a fire to take down the house from hell and everyone inside it. 
> 
> “It should have been me.” He muttered when he finally lifted his head. “She was a good woman, she didn’t deserve that.” Ginny didn’t have any words – nothing she could say would take away this pain so she just held him, stroking his hair until the sun came up. 
> 
> Draco had gone into things with the intention that he would remind her who he truly was. He would remind her he was a Death Eater, he’d done wicked things…that he was unworthy of her love. But something changed in her embrace, something in the safety of that room allowed him to show her weakness instead of evil. Allowed him to need her as much as she needed him.


End file.
